I'm terribly late on posting this, I struggled to get a topic for My Cinema today, eventually settled on Harlock: Space Pirate, so you can check that out if you like. This post though has actually brought me my topic for tomorrow, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion! Looking forward to writing that one actually.
TITLE: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
STRAIGHT INTO IT:
We've not time to waste (see what I did there?), let's jump right into the premise of the post. People wear masks for reasons, different masks for different purposes sometimes, and in RPGs very often if there is one mask, there will be many. In Majora's Mask different masks give you different abilities, sometimes different masks modify your stats differently, in the real world these aren't what masks are used for. Instead, masks are used to hide one's identity, even sometimes to take on the identities of others.
This is also the premise behind the Grey Fox mask in Oblivion. SPOILER ALERT FOR THE NEXT LINE:
When you complete the thieves' guild quest, you become the guildmaster by taking on the Grey Cowl from the previous Grey Fox.
Good to go on that? Awesome. So this mask not only allows you to hide your identity, but it actually causes you to take on a different identity, much like Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, when the unnamed hero takes on the Grey Cowl, he becomes the Grey Fox, your bounty is immediately maxed out, any guards pursuing your player character will cease (but will now pursue you as the Grey Fox), any crimes you commit will be attributed to the Grey Fox, and naturally people will react differently to you (master crime lord status).
This item was a favorite of mine in this game, partially because it's an awesome item for a thief, but also because it played into basically any roleplay style. I ran a character for an extended period of time who was, according to my own themes set in the privacy of my mind, a scholar, studying Daedric Artifacts. By the end of the game he had collected every artifact associated with Daedra except one. Because I forgot the Grey Cowl had its origins with Nocturnal. So, of course, my character set out on the rigorous task of obtaining the Grey Cowl by gaining the trust of its bearer. Learning that it was cursed and could not be removed he sought to break the curse, and of course eventually succeeded. So there you have it, just one character of many who owned the Cowl.
This didn't just play into the thief role though, an assassin might obtain the cowl in order to have his crimes attributed to a different power. A rival of the thieves' guild might seek out the Cowl to blaspheme their great leader. There are really any number of reasons from a role-playing perspective to own the Grey Cowl. But it had terrific mechanics as well. The cowl allows you to detect lifeforms nearby, carry additional inventory, and of course makes you better at moving undetected. (100% Chameleon armor also has that effect, just sayin'.)
So yeah, probably one of the coolest masks in gaming, and one of those really great games anyway. Loved Oblivion, and we'll probably revisit it in the future. Maybe even next week if no other ideas crop up (they probably will, but who knows.)
Yo-ho yo-ho, the Grey Fox' life for me!
Hope everyone enjoyed and I'll see you tomorrow!
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