Vvardenfell, Vivec

Day 6 (Time: Year 427 of the Third Age)

I dislike Vivec. Both of them.

The city of Vivec, the largest and most influential on the island, is presided over by an individual named Vivec, who is a living demigod. Vivec (the person) is a pompous tyrant who, though merely a man who has achieved immortality, feels his words carry deep metaphysical weight and feels he is beyond error or reproach. Vivec (the city) is a fascist municipality heavily patrolled by "Ordinators," religious police who dogmatically enforce Vivec's 'divine' will. This, all in all, makes for an unpleasant visiting experience.

To make matters worse, the city's layout is exceedingly inefficient. Basically, the entire civilian population is confined to a half-dozen or so massive bunkers (called cantons, visible on the left- and right-hand sides of the panorama) that sit in open water, making further expansion impossible. Perhaps there was a time that this 'multiple shopping malls' layout had its benefits, but the population of Vivec has since grown and led to a drastic shortage of living space. The poor use of space in these cantons (dedicating the much of the lowest levels to massive sewage systems where vermin and the restless dead multiply unchecked) doesn't help.

Because the cantons are separated by massive bridges, moving around the city is very time consuming. On the plus side, each canton is commercially self-sufficient. But this is wildly counterbalanced by a weak industrial capacity, bad trade design, and the impossibility of agriculture. The city depends on a constant flow of food that is easily disrupted by weather and banditry. To make matters worse, this sea-locked city inexplicably lacks a real harbor, requiring goods to travel into the city from mainland docks just outside the city. The result is that everything (from living space to food to equipment) is overpriced, and the citizenry are accustomed to isolating themselves from one another and living in a state of constant petty rivalry with their neighboring bunkers.

This rivalry is largely driven by the political conflict between the Great Houses of Morrowind. Vivec's political landscape is dominated by four houses: Hlaalu, Indoril, Redoran, and Telvani. Indoril, the most nationalist and most devoted to the gods of Morrowind, is a house in steep decline since Morrowind's annexation by an expansive human empire. Most of Vivec's Ordinators belong to the failing house and they teeter on the edge of frenzy, like cornered animals. The other houses have distanced themselves from Indoril and now vie amongst themselves for power. Redoran (stoic, pious, and hawkish) and Telvani (isolationist, conservative, and academic) both seem at a disadvantage compared to Hlaalu (cosmopolitan, mercantile, and pro-imperial).

Even if House Indoril and its religious police are in the twilight years of their political power, symbols of their abuses (and of Vivec's corruption) can be seen everywhere. At the forefront of the panorama is the entrance to Vivec's Temple Canton, beyond which lies Vivec's personal palace. Above the temple, a massive stone floats in the air, purportedly held aloft by Vivec's continual will. This is the Ministry of Truth. Unlike its 1984 analogue this "ministry" is dedicated to interrogation, intelligence gathering, and religious conversion. Nearly impossible to reach, this tiny moon symbolically watches over the city while acting as a high-security prison. Its prisoners, captured by Ordinators whose only check is the religious hierarchy, are held without trial, interrogated, and very likely tortured. Rumor has it that no prisoner has escaped and survived the fall. Likely, the little one can learn about the Ministry comes from Indoril defectors who have since pledged themselves to other houses, as the (very) select few who have been released are those who have converted (i.e. been brainwashed) into worshipers of Vivec.

Vivec proudly asserts that it is the most advanced and most powerful city in Vvardenfell, but it is riven by political strife, weakened by shoddy economics, strangled by incoherent urban planning, and haunted by the specters of its victims. Law both real and imaginary are enforced by savage and desperate zealots who will resort to anything to achieve their ends. The city's presiding power is a being who acknowledges no superiors and accepts few compromises.

Vivec is not a place I have enjoyed. I will be leaving as soon as possible, with a destination much more to my liking: Balmora.

To date, I've been traveling clockwise around Morrowind, through the mess of barren islands that is Zafirbel Bay, and then continuing around Azura's Coast. Though the fisherman whose ship I have chartered has been both helpful and affordable, none of the sites he directed me to struck me as particularly photo-worthy. We parted ways at Vivec's doorstep. Balmora promises to be considerably more to my liking, assuming it hasn't changed since my last visit.