Imperial Cult

The Imperial Cult is the official religion of the Empire. It is dedicated to the worship of the "Nine Divines," which are the eight gods of Daggerfall plus the Talos Cult, dedicated to the veneration of Tiber Septim. Imperial Cult shrines are found in most Imperial Legion forts and the Divine Intervention spell will teleport you to the closest of these shrines (good for a quick getaway). Completion of the Imperial Cult quests is a VERY good way to increase your overall reputation.

The Imperial Cult was designed for the beginning player. The quests given by the Imperial Cult quest givers focus on the basic aspects of Morrowind game play: finding places and things, interacting with NPCs, advancing within your faction, combat and magic use. The quests from the Lay Healers and Almoners are simple and straightforward, are presented in almost excruciating detail with lots of helpful suggestions from the quest givers. They involve very little danger to your character, so you are able to learn the basics of questing in a relatively safe environment. As an added bonus, you can reach rank 10 in the Imperial Cult without completing all of the quests from the first three or even starting on the Oracle quests.

Members of factions receive different types of welcomes from members of other factions, depending on how they get along. The formula is (Faction Reaction * 5)*(0.5 +(Faction Rank *0.5)). In plain terms, this means that as you attain higher ranks in your faction, people with negative modifiers will like you less and people with positive modifiers will like you more. This does not mean that everyone will start attacking you on sight, nor does it mean that they are going to fall all over themselves to be helpful. It does, however, modify their initial disposition toward you. This initial disposition will be further modified by your Personality, your overall reputation, your Criminal Status, whether or not you are Diseased, what kinds of favors you have done for the faction you're dealing with, etc. The other person may wind up liking you a lot or not liking you at all, but your faction and rank can impose a serious modifier.

Advancement within the Imperial Cult will depend upon your skill level in three of the following skills:

Imperial Cult's rank structure:

Of course, these promotions don't come just based on your skills. You must perform quests to gain reputation and rank within the Imperial Cult. Each successfully completed quest typically adds 5 points to your Faction Rep. In comparison to the other factions, rank in the Imperial Cult comes much faster and it is possible to reach rank 10 without completing all of the available quests.

Joining the Imperial Cult is simply a matter of talking to any priest at an Imperial Shrine and paying a one-time fee of 50 gold. If you are lacking in potions or spells, the fee will pay for itself several times over because you will receive discounts for the various Cure blessings offered at Imperial Shrine altars. At higher ranks there is no fee for these blessings.

Once you have joined the Imperial Cult, you have three options on what kinds of quests to do. The Imperial Cult offers quests for Almoners (fund raisers), Lay Healers (healers) and Shrine Sergeants (more dangerous quests). As an added benefit, all four of the Imperial Cult quest givers are in the Imperial Chapels in Ebonheart:

• Synnolian Tunifus (Lay Healer) - seven quests to deliver and retrieve ingredients and potions
• Ilus Truptor (Almoner) - seven quests to collect money and items
• Kaye (Shrine Sergeant) - five fairly standard faction quests
• Lalatia Varian (Oracle) - five fairly difficult, but very rewarding quests

Typically, each successfully completed quests gains you five points of faction reputation. Figure on two or three quests in addition to the minimum stat and skills requirements for each promotion.

Unlike other factions, the Lay Healer, Almoner and Shrine Sergeant quest-givers are pretty good about reminding you to check for advancement when you meet the criteria for a promotion. Also unlike other faction quest givers, these first three will allow you to turn down quests. You can turn down quests from the first two with no penalty, but Kaye gets a little miffed (-10 to disposition). You must wait a day before asking for another quest from them, however, and any quest that you turn down is not available again. You do have the option of talking to them about other things and the next quest remains available when you use that option.

There is no turning down Lalatia, however, as you must swear an oath to follow her orders without question before she will even offer you any quests.