This quest is honestly the perfect way to trigger the Dark Brotherhood recruitment. You're not just any psychotic killer who chopped someone down in a spontaneous flurry, you fill the role of a shadowy stalker who strikes in the night and shows a penchant for blood money. In other words, a display of skills and character traits that the Night Mother would be looking for.
And you could argue that it validates Glarthir's paranoia if you assume that the Brotherhood was following Glarthir and just happened upon the player because of that.
How tf do you even commit necrophilia in Morrowind? Don't they burn their dead? Do they stick their penis in the eye socket of a skull like that 4chan thread or use a femur as a dildo? @@Oracle13
Imaging an alternative version of the questline where you can lie about them watching him, BUT say they are doing it for positive reasons. Like say. - Bernadette has been watching you because she's infatuated with you! -Davide has been thinking of inviting you over for wine. -Sextius is just concerned about you.
Oh, that would be fun. Telling Glarthir that the people are just looking out for a fellow citizen of Skingrad. Why? Well, because he acts so scared and paranoid. So it's only natural that the three are checking on him if everything is okay.
Glarthir's paranoia has reasonable roots, but the intensity is more than likely fueled by mental illness. No matter what you tell him, he'll either twist it into something that confirms his suspicions or deny them outright. Bernadette is a black widow pretending to be infatuated to seduce him into a horrible fate. Davide is an incognito MD assassin who wants to poison him. Sextius masks his nosiness with concern so he can spy on him without question. No matter how you twist it, he's always going to be paranoid. He's willing to escalate to murder after following them around once, so he's obviously not in his right mind. My personal headcanon is that the one MD sleeper in the city has been systematically, secretly, goading Glarthir into his insanity. She does it so subtly that not even the paranoiac himself realizes she's doing it. Else is a powerful mage so its not out of the realm of possibility that she's using some kind of illusion magic to methodically drive the loosest screw in town nuts before he potentially outs her.
The thing with Glarthir's paranoia is it is *almost* justified, it's a well done plot line. Everyone IS kind of keeping tabs on him, even the town guards. And who was "the little bird" that talked to Dion? That is, indeed, indicative of a "conspiracy" of sorts. However, here we have a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is why it's so troubling and well written. Glarthir is weird, but is by all means a law-abiding citizen. Obviously he must be productive, too, else how could he pay you all that gold? Everyone you talk to sort of admits in some way they see him often or notice him a lot. And if they really WERE tailing him, why would they tell you? And then Dion mentions "a little bird" told him YOU are snooping about? And you can hear random citizens talking about Glarthir all over town? The only person who directly says "yes we pay attention to him" is the guard... and that's basically an admission of what "gangstalking" people fear - that "the police" are "keeping tabs" on them. So Glarthir -sort of- turns out to be justified. He is certainly paranoid in that, it seems, nobody has plans to "get him." But he isn't wrong that people make note of him and observe him. He's a topic of the town in hush-hush conversations, and town guard are actively paying attention to his behaviour. So basically you have a dude who is a little weird, but harmless, but everyone in town talks about him, sort of keeps him at an arms length, and the town guard are objectively keeping tabs on him. Noticing these connections isn't a true conspiracy, but it's a perfectly well written example of how this type of "madness" can over take someone in a very real way - it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. "I act weird. So people act weird back. BUT I am oblivious to my own weirdness, so it just seems like everyone is behaving weirdly toward me. They must be out to get me. I behave even more weirdly... they behave even more weirdly in return..." I also am in that group that would swear I found some kind of evidence pointing to a real conspiracy against him, but it is likely Mandela madness type of stuff based on the notes you find in the basement and this train of thought where you can be sympathetic to his plight but at the end of the day he really was a madman. Or.. was he...?
I was thinking the same actually! When Dion said a little birdy told me about Glarthir, it was clear that someone was definitely keeping tabs on him! I wanted to look into Dion’s background but there wasn’t much there unfortunately
"I know I'm crazy, but crazy people don't know they're crazy, and that makes me not crazy; crazy, right?" But yeah, definitely not harmless just inactive until the end of the quest where he pulls out an axe. Guy got his life stacked against him
Pretty sure a competent guard would know about the city's eccentric and be careful about him for the sake of the people. "Little bird" is also a pretty normal way of saying "yeah I know about this so...". We don't know what he did before the quest started. It is perfectly reasonable to assume some previous weird behavior had already been noticed by the guard and so they wanted to be careful with him. Besides, they only act when he involves himself in murder conspiracy.
Gurl U made my brain explored I was Omg I was so really confused about why were the guards keep an eye on him, what did he do because come on the authority wont check u for no reason, what did he do to be checked in the first place
I KNEW it, first your lackluster supposed "conclusion" about the truth of the matter in this questline, and now you're all over the comments running damage control for the few cases where people ask questions about this flimsy narrative. You'd have to be a fool not to connect the dots, I know they've gotten to you now, too >:O NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE! HYA-HAAH!@@ABardsBallad
Once you ask about Glarthir, Captain Dion will literally follow you anywhere in Skingrad. I was doing the thieves guild quest where you have to sneak into the vampire lair under the prison. Dion appeared in the tunnels asked me about Glarthir then proceeded to arrest me once the convo ended hahaha.
I'm trying to imagine how that played out in a Loony Tunes styled skit. "Oh, that man is asking about the town eccentric. I'd better see what's wrong." - Follows him as he breaks into the dungeon's secret passage - "Excuse me sir-" - Regular conversation - "Alright, take care. And if he does anything... please, inform me." - Turns to walk off, than realizes. - "WAIT A MINUTE, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!!"
I've always found it ironic that Glarthir has all these paranoia fueled theories that are unfounded, but he seems to be oblivious to the town's true dark secret - the count is a vampire.
People worry about chemtrails when Google is literally spying on them, too. The things we worry about aren't always the things we should worry about, and that's without mental illness in the mix.
Knowing the vampire hunters seen in Oblivion, it's no surprise. I mean, there is the order of the virtuous blood, who haven't found a single vampire. Except, their leader is one and none of the other members have an idea. Then the vampires under the bloodworks of the arena. Then memorial cave, which is just across the Niben from the Arcane University. Jakben, Earl of Imbel, who lives in the Talos Plaza district. Basically every town has a vampire cave closeby. And Skingrad isn't free of odds itself. There is a necrophiliac, a baker who crashes the game when he get's bread, an Agatha Christie style murder mystery, two Wes Johnson beggars... And Janus Hassildor is probably the vampire who tries the hardest to keep it hidden.
@@jordanstark5924 Salmo the Baker, when he has bread placed into his inventory, will attempt to deliver it to one of the two inns he frequents but due to a quirk of radiant AI coding once he reaches either inn he'll sit down somewhere and eat the bread which causes the game to crash, likely because he still wants to deliver that piece of bread that no longer exists.
Train restoration to max an get heal other spells. Do the Glarthir quest, lie to him but refuse to kill the people for him. Follow Glarthir while he goes on his rampage, heal him while he fights the guards. Best ending. When all the guards are dead, and his victims are dead, he will patrol the streets, carrying his axe while mumbling crazy talk.
In my game, Toutius Sextius first claimed to me that he doesn't know Glarthir, only to gossip in Castle Skingrad with THREE people about Glarthir (he started the topic!). But in the evening, he talked with that High Elven farmer man outside the West Gate about Glarthir. And the High Elf replied IN THE SAME CONVERSATION with "did you know that if you murder someone, the Dark Brotherhood will come to you while you sleep?"!!! That was just a codeword! THEY PLAN TO MURDER POOR GLARTHIR TO JOIN THE DARK BROTHERHOOD! First Toutius Sextius tried to find allies in the court to murder him, but then he conspired with the Thalmor agent to murder a Bosmer! I pushed Toutius Sextius down the bridge on his way to Castle Skingrad (took me 20 minutes to do so), but not before showing him Glarthir's note, so he could know that his evil plans are unveiled!
Ah yes, because every High Elf is Thalmor, even in a time period where the 3rd Aldmeri Dominion weren't even a major player yet /s Really though, it was their actions to protect people during the height of the invasion and their claim to have ended it entirely that put the Thalmor into power, so the idea of some random farmer being involved with them and targeting a random bosmer to join the brotherhood of all things is unlikely. The idea that the two were just generally planning to try and join the brotherhood is a fun one though
Well now I understand why Dion was slowly following me all around Skingrad when I first came into town. I had a bounty on me at the time, and his instinct for justice overrode the dialogue he had for this quest. I was literally being stalked by this man who just somehow knew that I had done something, and the way he slowly approached me like a fucking Terminator was legitimately one of the most unnerving and terrifying things I have ever experienced in a game
I love Oblivion. The way that you can never tell if what you've encountered is a bug or part of a quest is something else. You kind of just take the game at face value, and let Oblivion be Oblivion.
I remember the first time I did that quest, after reporting to Glarthir both times that no one was following him. On the third encounter, he came with a big axe hanging on his back. I remember thinking "This isn't going to end well".
I always feel bad about this quest. You're playing on someone's (potential) mental illness just to make a quick buck, and there's no path where you can convince him to just ask for help or find somewhere that, y'know, doesn't have neighbors who will set him off. Someone *has* to die, and that just sucks.
I will say, the one path that I do wish this quest had was indeed a path where no one had to die and glarthir was simply just arrested or something of the sorts
Just assume the Hero of Kvatch is also batshit insane too, so the player character probably really believes they saw Bernadette following him around. That's how I took it every time you had an option to say something crazy. You're kind of a crazy person. Made the Shivering Isles make my entire playthrough make so much sense. It was meant to be. Like how I stole every single spoon in Cyrodill and then Skyrim came out and there were no spoons. It just felt like real progress on my character's behalf.
Nah, disagree. Part of Oblivions charm is all the insanity that happens in the game. It's a dark fantasy comedy. The game treats the npcs as puppets. It would be "nice" to be the ultimate good guy, but I prefer Oblivions zaniness. Where mortal men are just puppets to these daedra constantly messing with things. It sucks for poor Glarthir but it is just a game.
Funny that I never noticed the neck seam related stuff in Oblivion until I started modding Skyrim. Glarthir's head is shadowed at night, but where it connects to the body doesn't have the same shadow. You can't unsee it.
As far as I remember this is because the head is his actual head and from the neck down the body is part of the clothing model, just applying the skin texture of the npc to it. And for some reason that model handles shadows differently (not at all)
Why would you tell me this? I didn't want to be cursed with this, I wanted to stay in blessed ignorance. Now it's going to drive me insane, and playing will become intolerable. I don't know if there's a mod for this (there probably is) but you just created a need for a mod. Thanks. Now I'll have to consider whether or not it'll run with the big titties mods.
Out of all the voice actors in this game, the guy who played Glarthir (and about 30% of all other NPC's) knocked it out of the park. Guy deserves an oscar 😂
i actually used detect life spells. and i personally think people WERE after him. he is a collector of knowledge, paranoid, and potentially a risk to the crown. he has MANY books and equipment of an intelligent person. dude sorta gave me una bomber vibes. i feel like he uncovered something, found a book he shouldnt have had. but didnt know much about it very possible HE WAS followed at one point.
It is impossible for the Selectives to be after him since they haven't existed since the First Era. Outside of that, great video. I never did the part of lying to him, so that was nice to see. After talking with the first woman he asked to check, it made it pretty clear that he was insane. Then the guard showed up and it made it even clearer. I also really like how the quest mentions how "quiet, strange and awkward" people can end up being extremely problematic rather than just some quirk... which hits a bit too close to RL given some tragic situations.
To me the guard IMMEDIATELY showing up actually seemed more like there was a conspiracy of sorts, because of how fast it happened in my playthroughs. I still didn't think the people "watching" him were actually, but it felt like the guard was lol.
I just did this quest, and actually stalked all 3 for multiple days without passing time. I caught Bernadette telling someone I couldn't see that she keeps trying to follow Glarthir but he always spots her, and caught David telling someone that he was acting stranger than normal in an extremely brief interaction. I think Glarthir is right.
Oblivion hooked me into the Elder Scrolls world ever since it landed on the shelf, and to this day I never knew Glarthir stalks you before whispering you to come over, or being able to show the 3 targets the list
Spoiler alert: Nirn actually IS flat, because it's a fantasy world made by actual gods who prefer disk shapes (see: Azura's Star). In fact, it's the Nirnroots that pin the disc to the giant Mudcrab carrying Nirn on its back, and once enough TES protagonists pick enough nirnroots, the whole planet will slide off the Mudcrab into the endless voids of Oblivion.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Now that I think about it, I don't think i've ever seen a spinning globe thing in the games, like those spinning earth globe things we have in real life.
@@lucianwong420Pretty sure there is a globe in the opening of Daggerfall, and one in Redguard. Also, doesn't the Dwemer Orrery in Oblivion depict Nirn as a globe? The one in Redguard too?
Once i followed one of the suspects and she went to take a break after working on the field and then another worker went over to sit next to her and they noticed me trying to sneak up to listen to them chat and then they tried to kill me😐
If you do the entire thing where you spy on every single person then he turns on you to attack, then you calm spell him and leave the city and fast travel away, when you come back he is non aggressive and the quest breaks and won’t update until you kill him.
Someone else said it best but it’s a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy. Glarthir believed he was being watched and, in a way, this became true as more and more of society noticed him and his insanity.
I still agree with Glarthir. Im not sure if it was a glitch, but I followed one of the people he accused, they began sneaking around the farm they work at and were pickpocketing anyone they came across. I've never seen an NPC sneak before. Killed them on the spot with 120% chameleon, reported back to Glarthir. Sextant (or whatever his name is) rudely claimed to not to know who Glarthir is in one dialogue option, but then knew exactly who he was after being pressed. Killed his ass too. Now Glarthir spends his days in peace. Oh and the Surile brothers. Same deal. "Who is that?" Then when hit with 100% charm and 100% self speechcraft spell, they knew exactly who he was. Pasted from another video. I know there is more to this story. Perhaps I just messed up somewhere along the lines.
I think he's potentially innocent based on one key piece of evidence. When you kill Glarthir, it triggers the Dark Brotherhood quest line, which can only be initiated by killing innocent people. I could be mistaken about that, but that's been my running theory for a while now
Nay you can kill anyone outside a quest line and the Dark Brotherhood will come to you. Or put another way unless you are told to kill someone in a Guild quest or the Arena etc, all NPCs are considered "innocent" ... even members of the Orum Gang in Cheydenhal who run the skooma trade in Cyrodiil.
@@greenscheme2040 There actually is one arena match in which you will trigger the Dark Brotherhood. It’s the one where you face three opponents at once.
@@luisortega8085 Yeah. Most of the other combatants either chose to be there out of desperation or chose to be there for honour or glory. The slaves were signed up by their masters and told they’d earn their freedom if they won. The other combatants know what they were getting into. Those three didn’t. And while the player has no way of knowing the extent of their circumstances, there is no formal spiritual contract of knowing danger with those three the way there is for the other combatants, so the Night Mother sees death without an understanding of danger established beforehand, and takes that to mean the same as a coldblooded murder. I believe she doesn’t watch over the world directly, but rather feels when an innocent life has been taken without knowing having a willingly made agreement that states they could die.
This is a brilliant quest because it's a way to show off one of the major features of the new game engine which was highly touted at the time: the radiant AI system. Like, it's easy to forget at this point since such systems are now rather common in open world games (though rarely quite as open as it in Oblivion), but back in 2006, the complexities of such a system were rather astounding! This quest was a showcase to demonstrate how complex this system could get, with all of its outcomes and AI interactions.
Getting stalked the moment you enter skinfrad to then realising the whole city is ran by a vampire and theres a massive consipacy amoungst all the citizens. Skingrad is definately the most interesting and mysterious town for sure. Im pretty certain its also where the murder mansion mission happens where you have to ensure no one leaves the house party alive. 😂 i love oblivion.
actually just did this quest recently on my playthrough and if you're super conscious about waiting its an anxiety inducing experience of not much happening and dealing with the worst kind of insanity while everyone tells you they don't mind him or never heard of him. Also each dialogue is literally either 6 or 18 hours apart. Then again I've always thought sheogorath was mid and haskill was the true star of that show. I ratted him out the second the note touched my inventory and enjoyed the private arena show.
Yeah the developers definitely did a wicked job with keeping the player enticed on this one 😂 I think my first time I got the ending where he attacked my character so I was really confused
@@ABardsBallad That was my first playthrough experience as well, "maybe he'll just calm down" nope lol. so this time i told him they were for the extra gold and so i could get the note. Then afterwards used his key to go in his basement and retreive his notes to hoard away in my basement.
There is one last possibility: The Marukhati Selectives might have been slowly poisoning Glarthir, and not necessarily in a literal sense. All they would need to do is have a few people disguise themselves as the three completely innocent people to spy on him randomly and then stop once he becomes aware of the stalking. A few choice words from a few paid "birdies" into Glarthir's ear (or even just near enough for him to overhear) and the paranoia that ensues would almost certainly lead him to be killed. Glarthir dies, the information he knows dies with him, and the Marukhati Selectives keep their hands "clean".
I enjoy letting Glarthir get close and then running away from him so as not to trigger the quest. . .I do the same thing irl all the time when people attempt to approach🃏🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣✌️
Easily rhe best sidequest in Oblivion, hands down. I tried hard enough with my last character to find all possible dialogue/routes in this quest and seems like I still didn't find everything. That's why it's so great! And greatly exexuted concept too.
@@ABardsBallad There is a third set of dialogue if you kill the person you are spying on for Glarthir before speaking with him behind the church to report on them
Thank you so much for making this awesome video! Incredible breakdown of one of the best quests in the game. Honestly, this is the quest that made Oblivion for me. I'll never forget how much I laughed at Glarthir's comments as a teenager, and how shocked I was when he showed up to the third meeting with his battle axe ready to go.
My man. Glad you talked about this quest. Another good qust to talk about is Sheos daedric quest in base game. That one has great diolog depending on how far you gotten on Shivering isle dlc.
23:20 "and nothing has been found" Me: "AHA! So! You're in on it too! NOT ONE OF THEM GUILTY! They got to you too! I KNEW IT! By Azura, by Azura, by Azura!!!"
The last time I played Oblivion, I did in fact lie to Glarthir, but at the conclusion of the questline when he had that last request, I did as Dion asked and reported what Glarthir asked me to do, resulting in his death. In earlier playthroughs, I usually told him the truth. He still died because either I killed him in self defense or ran away until a guard saw him attacking me.
Well, i luckily and as an accident got another ending to this quest line. Which is that i told Glarthir that none of his suspects are watching him but instead of making him go kill those people, due to a glitch somehow glarthir didnt go kill them nor he himself got killed by anyone. So i think I got the best ending as no innocent people died nor did the mentally affected/diseased Glarthir. :)
I've seen a lot of videos covering this quest and have done this quest 1000s of times but I actually didn't know about Glarthir possibly knowing secrets of these cults and that may have been what led him down the route of extreme paranoia. Awesome video 😃 Have you ever thought about a video on who ordered the dinner party hit? I wonder that a lot
Cheers! Thank you for the support!! I really found the notes in the basement very interesting to look into! I’ll have to look further into the dinner party hit for a video if the future!
Glarthir might just be so crazy that he thinks he has important information on those factions, while in reality he doesn't have anything at all or maybe a minor bit of essentially public knowledge. Which is the theory I'm siding with.
I’ve thought of that as well that there’s a really great chance he has nothing more than general knowledge, or just bare minimum poking around to where he thinks they’re out to get him!
@@ABardsBallad He's basically like the people who claim the deep state or the illuminati are out to get them because they know too much. And they tend to know nothing.
I love Skingrad. There's a funny and awesome glitch in the vampire quest. When you complete it and the Count pays you gold, if you leave the room and go back in, he'll repeat the same dialogue and pay you again for completing the quest. I made hundreds of thousands of gold after leaving and re-entering, skipping through the dialogue and receiving payment. It's very tedious and boring. But if you have the patience, you can farm a lot of gold using that glitch.
@@TerrorZelleThat's true. So easy to make tons of money. Especially in Morrowind with the alchemy ingredients glitch. Then a few levels up selling armor etc in these games you are rolling in loot.
I wonder how many players really thought they saw the characters acting suspicious and that the only logical conclusion was that they were really spying and decided to kill them as ordered, possibly expecting the game to provide more context or events, rather than just getting a trip from guards after an assault/murder. I remember Bernadette Peneles standing outside facing Glarthir's house for some time in the morning and thought perhaps it was intentional on the part of the developers, but it was quite clear that Glarthir was crazy as the quest went on and that the only real solution in my mind was to tell the guards.
I feel like an interaction between him and the adoring fan would be interesting. That being said, this quest has no solution where he doesn't die which is sad. That being said, I feel like it was the introduction quest to join the Dark Brotherhood. It would have also been interesting if they had been members of the Mythic Dawn as that would then create creedence to his paranoia. It would be interesting too if they had a mod that basically made it so that this was actually accurate and Glaurathir was right.
When I first did this quest, I thought Glarthir was right. I snuck into Bernadette's house and I found weapons in one of the closets. I'm like why does someone who works at a winery need battle axes and stuff. Then I snuck around the second dude's house and he was there. I fought him and he was actually pretty tough in hand to hand fighting. I was thinking that they don't seem to be just normal people.
Lol, except almost every other character's house has weapons somewhere in it. Guess you didn't do too much thieving when you were playing the first time. Got t be a good thief to know stuff in this game.
Well, I fast travelled to Battlehorn when I was on the quest to follow David Surilie, and I eventually noticed that green triangle indicating Surilie on the map walking eastwards along the road from Battlehorn to Correl, just west of the city, like he had somehow been following me. I tracked him back all the way to skingrad, but he didn't do anything else suspicious. The name is a bit weird too- Sure-I-lie- maybe a deliberate pun.
I just went with it playing Glathirs investigation game and telling him that he was right all along with every person. In the end when he gave me the last task to kill all these mentioned people, I just went to a guard with the task note glathir gave me and I snitch him to a guard so he gets killed by the guard in his insanity. After Glathir drops dead I take his House Key, break in and steal every last bit of coin and every item which has some value (for selling to a fence for the thieves guild) That's the most fun way to do this quest for me xD
In regards to the mandela effect on Davide Surilie being guilty I think it may be based on the official strategy guide for the game, when it details this quest it notes that Davide has a secret chest of hidden treasures in the pond to the north of the vineyard. I think the chest is filled randomly so it's not hard evidence, but that's where I know the suspicion from.
I am very impressed. Would love more videos on oblivion and Skyrim lore. They have many actual books to read in the game and I've always wondered if there was something revealing about the lore, or even prophecy style quest predictions.
I killed everyone for him my first playthrough i mean the guy paid me what else am i supposed to do. I always honor contracts no matter what and they are suspicious
What's funny is I carried out the quest with Glarthir as he asked and how the people in question carried out their day and took into consideration if they crossed paths with Glarthir or even stared him down to make it fun. With my playthrough, oddly Bernadette Peneles stayed in her house the entire day, which made her innocent. I have to assume my game glitched with her AI to make her idle in her house the entire day. I told Glarthir that she was innocent based on my experience. Toutious Sextius oddly crossed paths with Glarthir twice with my playthrough and actually stared him down for a solid minute. I found humor with this and used this basically to tell Glarthir that Toutious was infact watching him. Davide Surilie gave me a hard time about being in his house, not to mention crossed paths with Glarthir once in my playthrough, so I told Glarthir that Davide was watching him as well. I then reported Glarthir to the Guards, giving Dion the List of Death and letting them deal with Glarthir. Playing it out like this made it fun. A fun thing to do if you haven't started the quest with Glarthir is give yourself 100%+ Chameleon, go into Colovian Traders, jump onto the Chandalier and watch what Glarthir does. Gunder will stare up where you are despite you being in 100%+ Chameleon, as Glarthir climbs the steps and goes by staring at you, right into their bedroom since he cannot reach you. It's quite funny.
In a way Glarthir is right, the people are watching him. But they're watching him because he acts so odd. No conspiracy, just a bunch of concerned citizens.
It's funny how thought out and expansive this one quest is when in almost every playthrough I usually just say "no", hear he's going to "take matters into his own hands", and then kill him and take a bounty, usually initiating my dark brotherhood questline for the playthrough.
I always accepted the quest and did the skingrad mages guild quest in the meantime when I was supposed to be stalking people, and then lied to him so I could get the extra gold from telling him that his neighborhood is spying on him. Then when he gives you the murder note I go straight to Dion for the open invitation to get a few swings on him without having to break the law. Then when the final blow is hit and Glarthir dies I get credit for killing an innocent and start my dream job of being a dark brotherhood assassin. I then loot his house because the man is dead so he’s not gonna be needing his things anymore lol 😅 then I spend all of the gold earned on a paint horse in bruma. I never knew that declining his quest would make him do the job himself, and I have over a thousand hours into Oblivion.
Had one play-through where I followed the first two, reported they weren't doing anything suspicious, but when it came to the third person, there was no sign of him. Eventually, found his body underneath the bridge joining the city to the castle, with no explanation (a Bethesda bug, maybe?). Went back to Glarthir, & was able to tell him that the person was dead (in the dialogue options). He was happy with that, paid me, & carried on living in the city, but ignoring & avoiding me. No idea if it was a bug/glitch/"feature", but it was a kind of happier ending...
Lad's a bit touched by Sheogorath, tbh. Shame you couldn't point him in the direction of the Portal in Niben bay where he could probably safely live out his insanity. OR WOULD HE?
Honestly, despite the fact that there are a lot of awkward line reads and situations in the game due to the radiant AI conversations the NPCs do, the actors were all doing a pretty damn good job considering they each did like 5,000 lines of dialogue or something insane like that.
One thing Glathir kind of got right in his paranoia is that one of the notes he has in his basement you can read he mentions the Mystic Dawn could be behind stuff, lol.
What I always did was just stick around the Church wait and tell him that they're spying on him get his higher payment for the third one and then decline killing them then tell the guard and they deal with him before he can kill any of them. Get the gold no one innocent dies and he gets dealt with and the Guards will never know the wiser. It's unfortunate that different cities in Oblivion don't have a grave site with a funny note on the character.
I was hoping you would show dialogues for if you go back and forth between lying to him and telling him the truth. I havent played oblivion enough times recently enough to remember, but I'd be interested in doing that just to see if he can give you a shorter list and how different the dialogue is, specifically the one where he says that he finds it hard to believe that both Bernedette and Toutius are innocent.
I remember a conversation happening with one of the characters Glarthir asks you to stalk. One of the men, he walked out to the vineyard but went a little bit beyond that and met up with another NPC. This happened while I was following one of them. I do not remember a whole lot more, it might even have been for a different quest. But I distinctly remember that moment. Anybody that can confirm this or knows more about this, please let me know.
I wish there was a super missable easter egg where all these people he wants us to watch actually meet up like once every 30 days in secret and laugh about how glarthir is finally out of their way. What a hilarious twist that would be. Or even like a week later if you pick pocket one they have a maricati selective book or something 😂
A question about this quest that is always bothers me - from where does Glarthir have so much money? Like average salary of common cityzen of the Empire is about 5 gold per day and Glarthir grants you 200 coins, 1000 coins, and ever after that he still hold 800 gold in one of baskets in his house and who knows how more anywhere else, his house seems pretty higher-class too, how he could afford all of that if he is just some insane townfolk? He was some of the higher class once, or was he some kind of criminal? I would believe that Toutius MIGHT be cool against Glarthir, David and Bernadette is pretty sussy, like why does David mobilises to kill Glarthir as soon as you show him a note? He needed a reason to do it? And also, from who does Dion knew we were asking about Glarthir? Is there really some people concerned about us asking about him? But who could it be? Bernadette? It is possible, because he arrive only after we spy on her, or is there someone else? I think the reason they are against him is his riches for Bernadette, she seems pretty poor, she could break into his house aome night and steal some for herself, and David... I dunno, he might have a reason, maybe they have some conflicts, maybe Glarthir somehow affected him if he really was criminal back at the days. That is a thought that I always had
Glarthir is a Bosmer! He could actually be fairly old, perhaps? With his life span he would have more of an opportunity to accumulate money. He's dressed well, has a fancy house, perhaps his parents could have been from Valenwood & had some cash?
"The Blades - i know their dark secret." Could it be the secret that the blades killed the dragons? Or did he discover Martin's true heritage? "the Mythic dawn - maybe the biggest threat." - he wasnt wrong. Releasing Mehrunes Dagon into Tamriel and nearly ending the world, thats certainly the biggest threat.
Skingrad has a great layout in until you try to drive a horse through the gates. It's the only city that you are forced to drive a horse around the city just to continue riding on the road.
I have a theory. Glarthir's rampant paranoia might have been triggered by something legit. As we know, Else God-Hater is a Mythic Dawn sleepr agent. Giving that Glarthir has mentioned them as on of the organisations that spy on him she might have heard him at some point dropping their name. It could have result in her following him for some time before confirming he's just a nutcase. Glarthir could have noticed someone in the town was following him but because Else is supposed to be a professional he never figured out it was her. Instead his suspicion fell on other townspeople. We are told that Glarthir, while crazy, was considered to be harmless. Maybe that in fact was the case before, but because of Else his mental condition started to deteriorate even further making his paranoia all more vivid and dangerous.
This quest is honestly the perfect way to trigger the Dark Brotherhood recruitment. You're not just any psychotic killer who chopped someone down in a spontaneous flurry, you fill the role of a shadowy stalker who strikes in the night and shows a penchant for blood money. In other words, a display of skills and character traits that the Night Mother would be looking for.
It’s a really great way to get initiated into it for sure!
This is, in fact, how I did it the very first time.
And you could argue that it validates Glarthir's paranoia if you assume that the Brotherhood was following Glarthir and just happened upon the player because of that.
It's also a noice way for a thief to earn some quick coin 😂
Oooh, nice. Next time I play, that's how I'm going to start. 👍🏻
Skingrad has always creeped me out cos for a city with such big buildings it feels like theres hardly anyone there
It's how narrow the streets are
Occasionally there's some vampire hunters. Plus there's a roaming necrophiliac
@@explodingplant2only 500 gold fine, even if it's not your first offense. Nothing compared to the fine in Morrowind! 😂
Ehh, it's all about the wine. Just get tanked instead.
How tf do you even commit necrophilia in Morrowind? Don't they burn their dead? Do they stick their penis in the eye socket of a skull like that 4chan thread or use a femur as a dildo? @@Oracle13
Imaging an alternative version of the questline where you can lie about them watching him, BUT say they are doing it for positive reasons.
Like say.
- Bernadette has been watching you because she's infatuated with you!
-Davide has been thinking of inviting you over for wine.
-Sextius is just concerned about you.
Oh, that would be fun. Telling Glarthir that the people are just looking out for a fellow citizen of Skingrad.
Why? Well, because he acts so scared and paranoid. So it's only natural that the three are checking on him if everything is okay.
Glarthir's paranoia has reasonable roots, but the intensity is more than likely fueled by mental illness. No matter what you tell him, he'll either twist it into something that confirms his suspicions or deny them outright. Bernadette is a black widow pretending to be infatuated to seduce him into a horrible fate. Davide is an incognito MD assassin who wants to poison him. Sextius masks his nosiness with concern so he can spy on him without question. No matter how you twist it, he's always going to be paranoid. He's willing to escalate to murder after following them around once, so he's obviously not in his right mind.
My personal headcanon is that the one MD sleeper in the city has been systematically, secretly, goading Glarthir into his insanity. She does it so subtly that not even the paranoiac himself realizes she's doing it. Else is a powerful mage so its not out of the realm of possibility that she's using some kind of illusion magic to methodically drive the loosest screw in town nuts before he potentially outs her.
@@cherrycordiaI Loved this comment honestly, really well thought out.
Everytime i hear glarthirs lines, all i can think of is the glarthir song.
Just as I thought! JUST as I thought!
Young Scrolls 😊😊
m0gdred* @@thecauldron2212
The thing with Glarthir's paranoia is it is *almost* justified, it's a well done plot line. Everyone IS kind of keeping tabs on him, even the town guards. And who was "the little bird" that talked to Dion? That is, indeed, indicative of a "conspiracy" of sorts. However, here we have a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is why it's so troubling and well written. Glarthir is weird, but is by all means a law-abiding citizen. Obviously he must be productive, too, else how could he pay you all that gold? Everyone you talk to sort of admits in some way they see him often or notice him a lot. And if they really WERE tailing him, why would they tell you? And then Dion mentions "a little bird" told him YOU are snooping about? And you can hear random citizens talking about Glarthir all over town?
The only person who directly says "yes we pay attention to him" is the guard... and that's basically an admission of what "gangstalking" people fear - that "the police" are "keeping tabs" on them. So Glarthir -sort of- turns out to be justified. He is certainly paranoid in that, it seems, nobody has plans to "get him." But he isn't wrong that people make note of him and observe him. He's a topic of the town in hush-hush conversations, and town guard are actively paying attention to his behaviour.
So basically you have a dude who is a little weird, but harmless, but everyone in town talks about him, sort of keeps him at an arms length, and the town guard are objectively keeping tabs on him. Noticing these connections isn't a true conspiracy, but it's a perfectly well written example of how this type of "madness" can over take someone in a very real way - it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. "I act weird. So people act weird back. BUT I am oblivious to my own weirdness, so it just seems like everyone is behaving weirdly toward me. They must be out to get me. I behave even more weirdly... they behave even more weirdly in return..."
I also am in that group that would swear I found some kind of evidence pointing to a real conspiracy against him, but it is likely Mandela madness type of stuff based on the notes you find in the basement and this train of thought where you can be sympathetic to his plight but at the end of the day he really was a madman.
Or.. was he...?
I was thinking the same actually! When Dion said a little birdy told me about Glarthir, it was clear that someone was definitely keeping tabs on him! I wanted to look into Dion’s background but there wasn’t much there unfortunately
"I know I'm crazy, but crazy people don't know they're crazy, and that makes me not crazy; crazy, right?" But yeah, definitely not harmless just inactive until the end of the quest where he pulls out an axe. Guy got his life stacked against him
Pretty sure a competent guard would know about the city's eccentric and be careful about him for the sake of the people. "Little bird" is also a pretty normal way of saying "yeah I know about this so...".
We don't know what he did before the quest started. It is perfectly reasonable to assume some previous weird behavior had already been noticed by the guard and so they wanted to be careful with him. Besides, they only act when he involves himself in murder conspiracy.
Gurl
U made my brain explored
I was
Omg
I was so really confused about why were the guards keep an eye on him, what did he do because come on the authority wont check u for no reason, what did he do to be checked in the first place
I KNEW it, first your lackluster supposed "conclusion" about the truth of the matter in this questline, and now you're all over the comments running damage control for the few cases where people ask questions about this flimsy narrative. You'd have to be a fool not to connect the dots, I know they've gotten to you now, too
>:O
NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE! HYA-HAAH!@@ABardsBallad
Once you ask about Glarthir, Captain Dion will literally follow you anywhere in Skingrad. I was doing the thieves guild quest where you have to sneak into the vampire lair under the prison. Dion appeared in the tunnels asked me about Glarthir then proceeded to arrest me once the convo ended hahaha.
That's must be such a scary moment !
I'm trying to imagine how that played out in a Loony Tunes styled skit.
"Oh, that man is asking about the town eccentric. I'd better see what's wrong."
- Follows him as he breaks into the dungeon's secret passage -
"Excuse me sir-"
- Regular conversation -
"Alright, take care. And if he does anything... please, inform me."
- Turns to walk off, than realizes. -
"WAIT A MINUTE, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE!!"
I've always found it ironic that Glarthir has all these paranoia fueled theories that are unfounded, but he seems to be oblivious to the town's true dark secret - the count is a vampire.
People worry about chemtrails when Google is literally spying on them, too. The things we worry about aren't always the things we should worry about, and that's without mental illness in the mix.
Knowing the vampire hunters seen in Oblivion, it's no surprise.
I mean, there is the order of the virtuous blood, who haven't found a single vampire. Except, their leader is one and none of the other members have an idea.
Then the vampires under the bloodworks of the arena.
Then memorial cave, which is just across the Niben from the Arcane University.
Jakben, Earl of Imbel, who lives in the Talos Plaza district.
Basically every town has a vampire cave closeby.
And Skingrad isn't free of odds itself.
There is a necrophiliac, a baker who crashes the game when he get's bread, an Agatha Christie style murder mystery, two Wes Johnson beggars...
And Janus Hassildor is probably the vampire who tries the hardest to keep it hidden.
Elder scrolls Dale Gribbel doesn't exist, he can't hurt you.
*Elder Scrolls Dale Gribbel*
A baker that crashes the game when they get bread???
@@jordanstark5924 Salmo the Baker, when he has bread placed into his inventory, will attempt to deliver it to one of the two inns he frequents but due to a quirk of radiant AI coding once he reaches either inn he'll sit down somewhere and eat the bread which causes the game to crash, likely because he still wants to deliver that piece of bread that no longer exists.
Train restoration to max an get heal other spells. Do the Glarthir quest, lie to him but refuse to kill the people for him. Follow Glarthir while he goes on his rampage, heal him while he fights the guards. Best ending. When all the guards are dead, and his victims are dead, he will patrol the streets, carrying his axe while mumbling crazy talk.
True chaotic ending
Shaegorath play style
With his weapon stats it would take a year but worth every second
In my game, Toutius Sextius first claimed to me that he doesn't know Glarthir, only to gossip in Castle Skingrad with THREE people about Glarthir (he started the topic!). But in the evening, he talked with that High Elven farmer man outside the West Gate about Glarthir. And the High Elf replied IN THE SAME CONVERSATION with "did you know that if you murder someone, the Dark Brotherhood will come to you while you sleep?"!!! That was just a codeword! THEY PLAN TO MURDER POOR GLARTHIR TO JOIN THE DARK BROTHERHOOD! First Toutius Sextius tried to find allies in the court to murder him, but then he conspired with the Thalmor agent to murder a Bosmer! I pushed Toutius Sextius down the bridge on his way to Castle Skingrad (took me 20 minutes to do so), but not before showing him Glarthir's note, so he could know that his evil plans are unveiled!
I really wouldn’t be surprised if the devs left little bits of in game dialogue for the player to overhear for this quest!
@@ABardsBallad That would be genius. If it was just a coincidence, it was a great one that enhanced my playing experience a lot!
Ah yes, because every High Elf is Thalmor, even in a time period where the 3rd Aldmeri Dominion weren't even a major player yet /s
Really though, it was their actions to protect people during the height of the invasion and their claim to have ended it entirely that put the Thalmor into power, so the idea of some random farmer being involved with them and targeting a random bosmer to join the brotherhood of all things is unlikely. The idea that the two were just generally planning to try and join the brotherhood is a fun one though
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooow
Just woooooooooooow
@@sterthester736
I'm sure I was overhearing him talking about "syndicates of mages" too.
Well now I understand why Dion was slowly following me all around Skingrad when I first came into town. I had a bounty on me at the time, and his instinct for justice overrode the dialogue he had for this quest. I was literally being stalked by this man who just somehow knew that I had done something, and the way he slowly approached me like a fucking Terminator was legitimately one of the most unnerving and terrifying things I have ever experienced in a game
The way he first walked toward me while I was doing the quest totally creeped me out too 😂
oh, that's nothing I had Dion break into a room I was sleeping in at an inn! Then his body started glitching out in the door LOL!
I love Oblivion. The way that you can never tell if what you've encountered is a bug or part of a quest is something else. You kind of just take the game at face value, and let Oblivion be Oblivion.
I love the way he says Toutius' name
"TOOTius SEXtius"
The devs knew what they were doing with this one 👀
What's so funny about Sussus Amogus?
teutius sextius is sexting my wife
@@ЭрикКартман-ч4ю okay zoomer.
Tootius Sextius is sexting his wife. I’m sure that motherfucker wants him out of his life
I remember the first time I did that quest, after reporting to Glarthir both times that no one was following him. On the third encounter, he came with a big axe hanging on his back. I remember thinking "This isn't going to end well".
I always feel bad about this quest. You're playing on someone's (potential) mental illness just to make a quick buck, and there's no path where you can convince him to just ask for help or find somewhere that, y'know, doesn't have neighbors who will set him off. Someone *has* to die, and that just sucks.
I will say, the one path that I do wish this quest had was indeed a path where no one had to die and glarthir was simply just arrested or something of the sorts
Just assume the Hero of Kvatch is also batshit insane too, so the player character probably really believes they saw Bernadette following him around. That's how I took it every time you had an option to say something crazy. You're kind of a crazy person. Made the Shivering Isles make my entire playthrough make so much sense. It was meant to be. Like how I stole every single spoon in Cyrodill and then Skyrim came out and there were no spoons. It just felt like real progress on my character's behalf.
Nah, disagree. Part of Oblivions charm is all the insanity that happens in the game. It's a dark fantasy comedy.
The game treats the npcs as puppets.
It would be "nice" to be the ultimate good guy, but I prefer Oblivions zaniness. Where mortal men are just puppets to these daedra constantly messing with things.
It sucks for poor Glarthir but it is just a game.
@@wareforcoin5780 ysgramors spoon is in skyrim
Funny that I never noticed the neck seam related stuff in Oblivion until I started modding Skyrim. Glarthir's head is shadowed at night, but where it connects to the body doesn't have the same shadow. You can't unsee it.
😂 I’m afraid to notice it now
As far as I remember this is because the head is his actual head and from the neck down the body is part of the clothing model, just applying the skin texture of the npc to it. And for some reason that model handles shadows differently (not at all)
Why would you tell me this? I didn't want to be cursed with this, I wanted to stay in blessed ignorance. Now it's going to drive me insane, and playing will become intolerable. I don't know if there's a mod for this (there probably is) but you just created a need for a mod. Thanks. Now I'll have to consider whether or not it'll run with the big titties mods.
Its nice to see a good and detailed Oblivion content creator in 2023. I really like your videos man. Keep it up
Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it and I’m glad people still enjoy the game as much as I do!
Out of all the voice actors in this game, the guy who played Glarthir (and about 30% of all other NPC's) knocked it out of the park. Guy deserves an oscar 😂
So does Wes Johnson
Imagine there was a real conspiracy to uncover if the player goes the extra mile!
i actually used detect life spells. and i personally think people WERE after him.
he is a collector of knowledge, paranoid, and potentially a risk to the crown.
he has MANY books and equipment of an intelligent person. dude sorta gave me una bomber vibes.
i feel like he uncovered something, found a book he shouldnt have had. but didnt know much about it
very possible HE WAS followed at one point.
It is impossible for the Selectives to be after him since they haven't existed since the First Era. Outside of that, great video. I never did the part of lying to him, so that was nice to see.
After talking with the first woman he asked to check, it made it pretty clear that he was insane. Then the guard showed up and it made it even clearer. I also really like how the quest mentions how "quiet, strange and awkward" people can end up being extremely problematic rather than just some quirk... which hits a bit too close to RL given some tragic situations.
To me the guard IMMEDIATELY showing up actually seemed more like there was a conspiracy of sorts, because of how fast it happened in my playthroughs. I still didn't think the people "watching" him were actually, but it felt like the guard was lol.
I just did this quest, and actually stalked all 3 for multiple days without passing time. I caught Bernadette telling someone I couldn't see that she keeps trying to follow Glarthir but he always spots her, and caught David telling someone that he was acting stranger than normal in an extremely brief interaction. I think Glarthir is right.
Oblivion hooked me into the Elder Scrolls world ever since it landed on the shelf, and to this day I never knew Glarthir stalks you before whispering you to come over, or being able to show the 3 targets the list
Glarthir is also a Flat Nirner.
Spoiler alert: Nirn actually IS flat, because it's a fantasy world made by actual gods who prefer disk shapes (see: Azura's Star). In fact, it's the Nirnroots that pin the disc to the giant Mudcrab carrying Nirn on its back, and once enough TES protagonists pick enough nirnroots, the whole planet will slide off the Mudcrab into the endless voids of Oblivion.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe That's wild
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Now that I think about it, I don't think i've ever seen a spinning globe thing in the games, like those spinning earth globe things we have in real life.
As opposed to God, who clearly prefers spheres in reality
@@lucianwong420Pretty sure there is a globe in the opening of Daggerfall, and one in Redguard.
Also, doesn't the Dwemer Orrery in Oblivion depict Nirn as a globe? The one in Redguard too?
Once i followed one of the suspects and she went to take a break after working on the field and then another worker went over to sit next to her and they noticed me trying to sneak up to listen to them chat and then they tried to kill me😐
There’s a lot of interesting little scenarios like this that I read up on that have happened to people while doing this quest!
I noticed this too but the other worker stole from her 3 times and then went to have a conversation with her right after each time
You can also loot the trash can in his house for some free gold. At any point during the quest it's right by his front door.
One of my favorite things about this quest. Because of course the paranoiac puts his gold in the last place you'd look!
If you do the entire thing where you spy on every single person then he turns on you to attack, then you calm spell him and leave the city and fast travel away, when you come back he is non aggressive and the quest breaks and won’t update until you kill him.
I didn’t know that! That’s pretty neat!
Someone else said it best but it’s a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy. Glarthir believed he was being watched and, in a way, this became true as more and more of society noticed him and his insanity.
I still agree with Glarthir.
Im not sure if it was a glitch, but I followed one of the people he accused, they began sneaking around the farm they work at and were pickpocketing anyone they came across. I've never seen an NPC sneak before. Killed them on the spot with 120% chameleon, reported back to Glarthir. Sextant (or whatever his name is) rudely claimed to not to know who Glarthir is in one dialogue option, but then knew exactly who he was after being pressed. Killed his ass too. Now Glarthir spends his days in peace. Oh and the Surile brothers. Same deal. "Who is that?" Then when hit with 100% charm and 100% self speechcraft spell, they knew exactly who he was.
Pasted from another video. I know there is more to this story. Perhaps I just messed up somewhere along the lines.
Honestly Glarthir’s paranoia and death not leading to him respawning and being an npc in the shivering isles was a missed opportunity for sure.
I think he's potentially innocent based on one key piece of evidence. When you kill Glarthir, it triggers the Dark Brotherhood quest line, which can only be initiated by killing innocent people. I could be mistaken about that, but that's been my running theory for a while now
Nay you can kill anyone outside a quest line and the Dark Brotherhood will come to you. Or put another way unless you are told to kill someone in a Guild quest or the Arena etc, all NPCs are considered "innocent" ... even members of the Orum Gang in Cheydenhal who run the skooma trade in Cyrodiil.
@@greenscheme2040
There actually is one arena match in which you will trigger the Dark Brotherhood. It’s the one where you face three opponents at once.
they're slaves and fight for their freedom, so it makes sense @@ExhaustedScarf
@@luisortega8085
Yeah. Most of the other combatants either chose to be there out of desperation or chose to be there for honour or glory. The slaves were signed up by their masters and told they’d earn their freedom if they won.
The other combatants know what they were getting into. Those three didn’t. And while the player has no way of knowing the extent of their circumstances, there is no formal spiritual contract of knowing danger with those three the way there is for the other combatants, so the Night Mother sees death without an understanding of danger established beforehand, and takes that to mean the same as a coldblooded murder.
I believe she doesn’t watch over the world directly, but rather feels when an innocent life has been taken without knowing having a willingly made agreement that states they could die.
I don't think that's right. I'm pretty sure it's the Gray Prince if you do his quest line
He also released a banger of a song!
This is a brilliant quest because it's a way to show off one of the major features of the new game engine which was highly touted at the time: the radiant AI system. Like, it's easy to forget at this point since such systems are now rather common in open world games (though rarely quite as open as it in Oblivion), but back in 2006, the complexities of such a system were rather astounding! This quest was a showcase to demonstrate how complex this system could get, with all of its outcomes and AI interactions.
Getting stalked the moment you enter skinfrad to then realising the whole city is ran by a vampire and theres a massive consipacy amoungst all the citizens. Skingrad is definately the most interesting and mysterious town for sure.
Im pretty certain its also where the murder mansion mission happens where you have to ensure no one leaves the house party alive. 😂 i love oblivion.
actually just did this quest recently on my playthrough and if you're super conscious about waiting its an anxiety inducing experience of not much happening and dealing with the worst kind of insanity while everyone tells you they don't mind him or never heard of him. Also each dialogue is literally either 6 or 18 hours apart. Then again I've always thought sheogorath was mid and haskill was the true star of that show. I ratted him out the second the note touched my inventory and enjoyed the private arena show.
Yeah the developers definitely did a wicked job with keeping the player enticed on this one 😂 I think my first time I got the ending where he attacked my character so I was really confused
@@ABardsBallad That was my first playthrough experience as well, "maybe he'll just calm down" nope lol. so this time i told him they were for the extra gold and so i could get the note. Then afterwards used his key to go in his basement and retreive his notes to hoard away in my basement.
There is one last possibility: The Marukhati Selectives might have been slowly poisoning Glarthir, and not necessarily in a literal sense. All they would need to do is have a few people disguise themselves as the three completely innocent people to spy on him randomly and then stop once he becomes aware of the stalking. A few choice words from a few paid "birdies" into Glarthir's ear (or even just near enough for him to overhear) and the paranoia that ensues would almost certainly lead him to be killed. Glarthir dies, the information he knows dies with him, and the Marukhati Selectives keep their hands "clean".
I actually enjoyed this quest its a nice change of pace from all the killing and saving the world
I agree! I really liked the spying and detective work!
I never went down the route of killing his targets. Brutal 😮
I enjoy letting Glarthir get close and then running away from him so as not to trigger the quest. . .I do the same thing irl all the time when people attempt to approach🃏🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣✌️
I love this quest. So glad you covered it
Cheers! :) it’s definitely up there for me on my favourite side quests!
This is the first memorable quest I've played in oblivion, the second one was the walk in painting quest :)
the painting quest was a great one
Easily rhe best sidequest in Oblivion, hands down. I tried hard enough with my last character to find all possible dialogue/routes in this quest and seems like I still didn't find everything. That's why it's so great! And greatly exexuted concept too.
It was a super fun and unique quest! Lot’s of varying NPC interactions which was really cool!
@@ABardsBallad There is a third set of dialogue if you kill the person you are spying on for Glarthir before speaking with him behind the church to report on them
Thank you so much for making this awesome video! Incredible breakdown of one of the best quests in the game. Honestly, this is the quest that made Oblivion for me. I'll never forget how much I laughed at Glarthir's comments as a teenager, and how shocked I was when he showed up to the third meeting with his battle axe ready to go.
My man. Glad you talked about this quest. Another good qust to talk about is Sheos daedric quest in base game. That one has great diolog depending on how far you gotten on Shivering isle dlc.
It was a super fun one to talk about and cover! I’ll have to look into that one as well! :)
23:20 "and nothing has been found"
Me: "AHA! So! You're in on it too! NOT ONE OF THEM GUILTY! They got to you too! I KNEW IT! By Azura, by Azura, by Azura!!!"
The last time I played Oblivion, I did in fact lie to Glarthir, but at the conclusion of the questline when he had that last request, I did as Dion asked and reported what Glarthir asked me to do, resulting in his death. In earlier playthroughs, I usually told him the truth. He still died because either I killed him in self defense or ran away until a guard saw him attacking me.
Maybe try the calm spell?
Well, i luckily and as an accident got another ending to this quest line. Which is that i told Glarthir that none of his suspects are watching him but instead of making him go kill those people, due to a glitch somehow glarthir didnt go kill them nor he himself got killed by anyone. So i think I got the best ending as no innocent people died nor did the mentally affected/diseased Glarthir. :)
I've seen a lot of videos covering this quest and have done this quest 1000s of times but I actually didn't know about Glarthir possibly knowing secrets of these cults and that may have been what led him down the route of extreme paranoia. Awesome video 😃
Have you ever thought about a video on who ordered the dinner party hit? I wonder that a lot
Cheers! Thank you for the support!! I really found the notes in the basement very interesting to look into! I’ll have to look further into the dinner party hit for a video if the future!
This is one of my favorite quests in Oblivion.
Glarthir might just be so crazy that he thinks he has important information on those factions, while in reality he doesn't have anything at all or maybe a minor bit of essentially public knowledge. Which is the theory I'm siding with.
I’ve thought of that as well that there’s a really great chance he has nothing more than general knowledge, or just bare minimum poking around to where he thinks they’re out to get him!
@@ABardsBallad He's basically like the people who claim the deep state or the illuminati are out to get them because they know too much. And they tend to know nothing.
"Yes, you. We need to talk" Congratulations on reaching 2k subs!
Ayyy thank you!! :) it was really cool to see it happen! Tons of more content to come out! :)
I love Skingrad.
There's a funny and awesome glitch in the vampire quest. When you complete it and the Count pays you gold, if you leave the room and go back in, he'll repeat the same dialogue and pay you again for completing the quest.
I made hundreds of thousands of gold after leaving and re-entering, skipping through the dialogue and receiving payment.
It's very tedious and boring. But if you have the patience, you can farm a lot of gold using that glitch.
you can just cheat gold at this point . tho its way too easy to get rich in bethesda games after morrowind
@@TerrorZelleThat's true. So easy to make tons of money. Especially in Morrowind with the alchemy ingredients glitch. Then a few levels up selling armor etc in these games you are rolling in loot.
I wonder how many players really thought they saw the characters acting suspicious and that the only logical conclusion was that they were really spying and decided to kill them as ordered, possibly expecting the game to provide more context or events, rather than just getting a trip from guards after an assault/murder. I remember Bernadette Peneles standing outside facing Glarthir's house for some time in the morning and thought perhaps it was intentional on the part of the developers, but it was quite clear that Glarthir was crazy as the quest went on and that the only real solution in my mind was to tell the guards.
I feel like an interaction between him and the adoring fan would be interesting. That being said, this quest has no solution where he doesn't die which is sad. That being said, I feel like it was the introduction quest to join the Dark Brotherhood. It would have also been interesting if they had been members of the Mythic Dawn as that would then create creedence to his paranoia. It would be interesting too if they had a mod that basically made it so that this was actually accurate and Glaurathir was right.
When I first did this quest, I thought Glarthir was right. I snuck into Bernadette's house and I found weapons in one of the closets. I'm like why does someone who works at a winery need battle axes and stuff. Then I snuck around the second dude's house and he was there. I fought him and he was actually pretty tough in hand to hand fighting. I was thinking that they don't seem to be just normal people.
Lol, except almost every other character's house has weapons somewhere in it. Guess you didn't do too much thieving when you were playing the first time. Got t be a good thief to know stuff in this game.
Well, I fast travelled to Battlehorn when I was on the quest to follow David Surilie, and I eventually noticed that green triangle indicating Surilie on the map walking eastwards along the road from Battlehorn to Correl, just west of the city, like he had somehow been following me. I tracked him back all the way to skingrad, but he didn't do anything else suspicious. The name is a bit weird too- Sure-I-lie- maybe a deliberate pun.
Daedric Entities, big and small
Patiently waiting for the towers' fall
Some of the down like a game of Jenga
Nirn is a playground to them all
Dunmer, count that days that pass
You've got a disaster on your ass
Don't succumb to the sense of dread
You fucks will be truly seeing red
I just went with it playing Glathirs investigation game and telling him that he was right all along with every person. In the end when he gave me the last task to kill all these mentioned people, I just went to a guard with the task note glathir gave me and I snitch him to a guard so he gets killed by the guard in his insanity. After Glathir drops dead I take his House Key, break in and steal every last bit of coin and every item which has some value (for selling to a fence for the thieves guild) That's the most fun way to do this quest for me xD
his money is hidden in a basket right next to his front door If I remember correctly
I like the song of glarthir found on youtube. I hear it in my head all the time when in that city.
These oblivion quest narrations are my happy place
In regards to the mandela effect on Davide Surilie being guilty I think it may be based on the official strategy guide for the game, when it details this quest it notes that Davide has a secret chest of hidden treasures in the pond to the north of the vineyard. I think the chest is filled randomly so it's not hard evidence, but that's where I know the suspicion from.
Would have loved to have had a peaceful solution that ends up with him in the Shivering Isles
I am very impressed. Would love more videos on oblivion and Skyrim lore. They have many actual books to read in the game and I've always wondered if there was something revealing about the lore, or even prophecy style quest predictions.
You should make a video about Mazoga the Orc
I’ll take a look at it for sure!
Now i wish Shivering Isles had special dialogue/choices for if you are Sheogorath when talking to Glarthir
I killed everyone for him my first playthrough i mean the guy paid me what else am i supposed to do. I always honor contracts no matter what and they are suspicious
He paid you if you told him the truth too. He just asked you to report back what you found. He only gets upset at you at the end.
What's funny is I carried out the quest with Glarthir as he asked and how the people in question carried out their day and took into consideration if they crossed paths with Glarthir or even stared him down to make it fun. With my playthrough, oddly Bernadette Peneles stayed in her house the entire day, which made her innocent. I have to assume my game glitched with her AI to make her idle in her house the entire day. I told Glarthir that she was innocent based on my experience.
Toutious Sextius oddly crossed paths with Glarthir twice with my playthrough and actually stared him down for a solid minute. I found humor with this and used this basically to tell Glarthir that Toutious was infact watching him.
Davide Surilie gave me a hard time about being in his house, not to mention crossed paths with Glarthir once in my playthrough, so I told Glarthir that Davide was watching him as well.
I then reported Glarthir to the Guards, giving Dion the List of Death and letting them deal with Glarthir. Playing it out like this made it fun.
A fun thing to do if you haven't started the quest with Glarthir is give yourself 100%+ Chameleon, go into Colovian Traders, jump onto the Chandalier and watch what Glarthir does. Gunder will stare up where you are despite you being in 100%+ Chameleon, as Glarthir climbs the steps and goes by staring at you, right into their bedroom since he cannot reach you. It's quite funny.
You could lie for a few of them and tell the truth on others. That's what I did before I told the cops on him.
The fact that glarthir is a tiny wood elf is great but when you see him wielding the battleaxe its even funnier.
In a way Glarthir is right, the people are watching him.
But they're watching him because he acts so odd. No conspiracy, just a bunch of concerned citizens.
It's funny how thought out and expansive this one quest is when in almost every playthrough I usually just say "no", hear he's going to "take matters into his own hands", and then kill him and take a bounty, usually initiating my dark brotherhood questline for the playthrough.
Glarthir also dropped a fire mix tape
Remember the first time I did the quest. Wasted a lot of time tailing the targets, ended up tattling on the guy.
A part of me really did wish he wasn’t crazy and someone was actually following him so that way the spying we did was put to use!
Just as i thought Just as i THOUGHT!
you better WATCH OUT!
I always accepted the quest and did the skingrad mages guild quest in the meantime when I was supposed to be stalking people, and then lied to him so I could get the extra gold from telling him that his neighborhood is spying on him. Then when he gives you the murder note I go straight to Dion for the open invitation to get a few swings on him without having to break the law. Then when the final blow is hit and Glarthir dies I get credit for killing an innocent and start my dream job of being a dark brotherhood assassin. I then loot his house because the man is dead so he’s not gonna be needing his things anymore lol 😅 then I spend all of the gold earned on a paint horse in bruma.
I never knew that declining his quest would make him do the job himself, and I have over a thousand hours into Oblivion.
Had one play-through where I followed the first two, reported they weren't doing anything suspicious, but when it came to the third person, there was no sign of him. Eventually, found his body underneath the bridge joining the city to the castle, with no explanation (a Bethesda bug, maybe?). Went back to Glarthir, & was able to tell him that the person was dead (in the dialogue options). He was happy with that, paid me, & carried on living in the city, but ignoring & avoiding me. No idea if it was a bug/glitch/"feature", but it was a kind of happier ending...
To “keep him safe” I avoid Glarthir like its a UA-cam Challenge. Jumping bridges, “climbing” buildings etc. Anything to get away from that Woodelf.
Lad's a bit touched by Sheogorath, tbh. Shame you couldn't point him in the direction of the Portal in Niben bay where he could probably safely live out his insanity. OR WOULD HE?
Well he'd at least be among more than a few other male Bosmers. Those male wood elves be a crazy lot. (Want to buy a stick).
@@greenscheme2040 Aw, Fibble.
Glarthir is literary me. Fr fr
Skingrad reminds of some of the old streets in York
For some reason, Glarthir specifying he's paying you gold makes me giggle. Instead of, i dunno, poop?
being an assassin I always took care of Glarthir's 3 problems. they are VERY good a hiding their evil deeds.
I always liked this quest. I liked letting him try to kill them and letting the guards take care of him.
I always felt bad for Glarthir, I wish you could bring him to the Shivering Isles.
The voice actor for the male elves was underpaid, regardless how much he made
Honestly, despite the fact that there are a lot of awkward line reads and situations in the game due to the radiant AI conversations the NPCs do, the actors were all doing a pretty damn good job considering they each did like 5,000 lines of dialogue or something insane like that.
I never noticed the fact that Glarthir actually followed you around before he says he needs to talk to you. lol
Psst, over here... we can't talk here... Bernadette Peneles, 6am. Don't be late.
One thing Glathir kind of got right in his paranoia is that one of the notes he has in his basement you can read he mentions the Mystic Dawn could be behind stuff, lol.
What I always did was just stick around the Church wait and tell him that they're spying on him get his higher payment for the third one and then decline killing them then tell the guard and they deal with him before he can kill any of them. Get the gold no one innocent dies and he gets dealt with and the Guards will never know the wiser. It's unfortunate that different cities in Oblivion don't have a grave site with a funny note on the character.
I was hoping you would show dialogues for if you go back and forth between lying to him and telling him the truth. I havent played oblivion enough times recently enough to remember, but I'd be interested in doing that just to see if he can give you a shorter list and how different the dialogue is, specifically the one where he says that he finds it hard to believe that both Bernedette and Toutius are innocent.
I remember a conversation happening with one of the characters Glarthir asks you to stalk.
One of the men, he walked out to the vineyard but went a little bit beyond that and met up with another NPC.
This happened while I was following one of them.
I do not remember a whole lot more, it might even have been for a different quest. But I distinctly remember that moment.
Anybody that can confirm this or knows more about this, please let me know.
I wish there was a super missable easter egg where all these people he wants us to watch actually meet up like once every 30 days in secret and laugh about how glarthir is finally out of their way. What a hilarious twist that would be.
Or even like a week later if you pick pocket one they have a maricati selective book or something 😂
I really really wish there was a good ending to this quest. Unlucky
Me too!
Really only choice seems to be to avoid him and hope the oblivion crisis ending mellows him out.
Nah, nope, part of Elder Scrolls charm for me is the wacky situations and the disregard for mortal lives.
A question about this quest that is always bothers me - from where does Glarthir have so much money? Like average salary of common cityzen of the Empire is about 5 gold per day and Glarthir grants you 200 coins, 1000 coins, and ever after that he still hold 800 gold in one of baskets in his house and who knows how more anywhere else, his house seems pretty higher-class too, how he could afford all of that if he is just some insane townfolk? He was some of the higher class once, or was he some kind of criminal? I would believe that Toutius MIGHT be cool against Glarthir, David and Bernadette is pretty sussy, like why does David mobilises to kill Glarthir as soon as you show him a note? He needed a reason to do it? And also, from who does Dion knew we were asking about Glarthir? Is there really some people concerned about us asking about him? But who could it be? Bernadette? It is possible, because he arrive only after we spy on her, or is there someone else? I think the reason they are against him is his riches for Bernadette, she seems pretty poor, she could break into his house aome night and steal some for herself, and David... I dunno, he might have a reason, maybe they have some conflicts, maybe Glarthir somehow affected him if he really was criminal back at the days. That is a thought that I always had
Glarthir is a Bosmer! He could actually be fairly old, perhaps? With his life span he would have more of an opportunity to accumulate money. He's dressed well, has a fancy house, perhaps his parents could have been from Valenwood & had some cash?
interesting nice comment
If he had that reaction to Davide Surille, how would he pop his lid over Maven?
To this day I still can’t say Toutius Sextius without cracking a smile
For any Italian reading: thumbs up for Glarthir going "coincidence? I dont believe so". I always know Adam Kadmon was a freebooter
"The Blades - i know their dark secret." Could it be the secret that the blades killed the dragons? Or did he discover Martin's true heritage?
"the Mythic dawn - maybe the biggest threat." - he wasnt wrong. Releasing Mehrunes Dagon into Tamriel and nearly ending the world, thats certainly the biggest threat.
Skingrad has a great layout in until you try to drive a horse through the gates. It's the only city that you are forced to drive a horse around the city just to continue riding on the road.
I'd say that you finding nothing suspicious and him still turning to murderous rage is pretty indicative of him being just paranoid.
#JusticeForGlarthir
My guy had it ROUGH out in Skingrad
My favorite quest of my favorite game.
I have a theory. Glarthir's rampant paranoia might have been triggered by something legit. As we know, Else God-Hater is a Mythic Dawn sleepr agent. Giving that Glarthir has mentioned them as on of the organisations that spy on him she might have heard him at some point dropping their name. It could have result in her following him for some time before confirming he's just a nutcase. Glarthir could have noticed someone in the town was following him but because Else is supposed to be a professional he never figured out it was her. Instead his suspicion fell on other townspeople. We are told that Glarthir, while crazy, was considered to be harmless. Maybe that in fact was the case before, but because of Else his mental condition started to deteriorate even further making his paranoia all more vivid and dangerous.