An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire

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An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
Publication Information
Developer	Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Game engine	XnGine
Release date	November 30, 1997
Genre	Action role-playing
Modes	Single Player, Multi Player
Rating	ESRB: M ELSPA:15+
Platform	PC
Website	elderscrolls.com/battlespire
Game Information
Setting	Battlespire, Oblivion
Time Period	Between 3E 398 and 3E 405

For the 2017 card game, see The Elder Scrolls: Legends.

"I recall the story of the recovery of the Battlespire as it was told to me by the son of Old Chimere, these many years ago. How the legions of daedra Lord Mehrunes Dagon overran the spire aided by betrayal. How a young hero from obscure origins entered the Battlespire, proving ground and testing facility for the shadow legion, the imperial guard, and finding his test was more than he bargained for. Thinking this was only a harmless test of his skills, he enters the spire through the pillar of light and finds a hell created by the betrayal of the legion and the perfidy of Jagar Tharn, arch-traitor to the empire. And so our story begins..."

―Introduction of Battlespire

An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire is a first-person role-playing game developed in 1997 by Bethesda Softworks for the MS-DOS operating system. It takes place in the Battlespire academy, found between the realms of Mundus and Oblivion.

Plot

In Battlespire, the player takes the role of The Apprentice, who on the day of his final test in the training facility of the Battlemages, called the Battlespire, discovers that an army of Daedra led by Mehrunes Dagon has invaded and killed nearly everyone. On top of that, their partner has been held captive by Mehrunes Dagon himself. Over the course of seven levels, they must travel through various realms of Oblivion to reach Mehrunes Dagon, defeat him and escape back to Tamriel.

Development

Battlespire was planned to be the expansion for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, but was later developed as a standalone game and released as a spin-off. It is the only game with the title An Elder Scrolls Legend.

Features

Bethesda introduced a multiplayer that featured a cooperative mode to follow the single player storyline online, as well as a team-based versus mode to fight using all the same strategies from the single player. This was done through the Mplayer multiplayer network, which is now GameSpy. Though no longer supported by Mplayer/GameSpy Arcade, one can still play through the Kali multiplayer network client, which supports and works with all the features in the game.

Quests

Main article: Quests (Battlespire)

There are a total of 7 single player quests, or levels, in Battlespire:

• Level 1 – The Weir Gate
• Level 2 – Caitiff
• Level 3 – The Soul Cairn
• Level 4 – Shade Perilous
• Level 5 – The Chimera of Desolation
• Level 6 – Havok Wellhead
• Level 7 – Mehrunes Dagon

Races

Main article: Races (Battlespire)

Players can craft their character using one of six races of Tamriel.

Each race is characterized by a specific power and passive bonus, as well as starting with a few skills at slightly higher levels. For example, elves begin the game with a high skill in the usage of blades, and magic-related skills.

Playable races include:

• Altmer (High Elves – Summerset Isles)
• Bosmer (Wood Elves – Valenwood)
• Dunmer (Dark Elves – Morrowind)
• Nord (Humans – Skyrim)
• Redguard (Humans – Hammerfell)
• Breton (Half Elf/Human – High Rock)

There are also unplayable races and species which are mentioned and/or seen throughout the game:

• Frost Daedra
• Fire Daedra
• Boneman
• Clannfear
• Daedra Count
• Daedra Lord
• Dark Seducer
• Dremora
• Herne
• Mistman
• Morphoid Daedra
• Scamp
• Spider Daedra
• Vermai
• Wrathman

Equipment

• Weapons
• Armor
• Spells

Compared with other titles from the series

There are some marked differences between this game and its predecessors:

• Lack of a rest feature.
• Lack of shops or gold (broken or lost equipment must be replaced with randomized drops, either from slain characters or treasure piles).
• Enemies do not reset. They are also not randomized.

System requirements

The game requires a DOS emulator in order to be run on modern operating systems. However, given that it is one of the most resource-demanding DOS games ever released commercially, as of 2009 the emulation overhead causes even relatively modern PCs to run the game sluggishly in an emulator.

External links

• Battlespire on GOG.com
• Battlespire on the Official Elder Scrolls site
• Battlespire on Wikipedia