Morrowind has some of the strangest NPCs of any Elder Scrolls game. It threw players into an alien landscape populated by creatures and architecture which would have been just as at home in a sci-fi work as a traditional fantasy RPG. The game's commitment to making the player feel like a true "outlander" - Dark Elf or otherwise - is seen in its characters as much as it is the game's focus on the strangest corners of Elder Scrolls lore, be it the disappearance of the Dwemer or CHIM.

Vvardenfell's bizarre inhabitants broke the the high fantasy mold in a way Oblivion and Skyrim rarely did. Here are just some of Morrowind's most memorable NPCs and what exactly makes them so wonderfully weird.

RELATED: Elder Scrolls Morrowind Rebirth Mod Updates With Hundreds of Graphical Changes

Divayth Fyr

morrowind divayth fyr

Divayth Fyr is a four-thousand year-old Dunmer wizard and caretaker of the Corprusarium, a quarantine zone for the Corprus disease known to the members of House Dagoth as "the Divine Disease." This doesn't even scratch the surface of Divayth Fyr's bizarre life, however. Living for over four millennia makes Divayth one of the oldest characters in the Elder Scrolls lore.

As many fans can imagine, living to such an age would likely make finding companionship difficult. After all, Divayth is literally peerless. Who better then for the wizard to marry than four female clones of himself created from jars of his own flesh? Alfe, Beyte, Delte, and Uupse are the near-alphabetically named daughter-wives of Divayth Fyr. The ancient Elf may be one of Morrowind's strangest inhabitants, but some of the other company he keeps is even stranger.

Yagrum Bagarn

Morrowind Yagrum Bagarn

The line between incredible good luck and terrible misfortune can be slim, but being infected with Corprus and attached to the lower half of a Dwemer centurion spider has left Yagrum Bagarn more than a little bloated. Yagrum is the last of the Dwemer, who all disappeared during their war with the Chimer. When the Dwemer's Chief Tonal Architect Kagrenac tried to use the Heart of Lorkhan to make his people gods, they vanished. Yagrum Bagarn, however, was in an "Outer Realm" at the time, and returned to find himself the last known member of his race.

After contracting Corprus, he befriended Divayth Fyr, who cared for him and helped retrieve him from the insanity caused by the later stages of the disease. He is one of the only characters in the entire series who is able to formulate hypothesis about why exactly the Dwemer disappeared, including that they did in fact achieve immorality with the unexpected side-effect of ascending to a totally different plane of existence. To make the self-declared "Last Living Dwarf" even stranger, cut recorded dialogue originally gave him a voice like Tex Avery's Droopy the dog.

RELATED: Open-World Games That Set Industry Standards

Maurrie Aurmine

morrowind Maurrie Aurmine breton

Memorable NPCs aren't just ancient Elven wizards and the sole survivors of metaphysical catastrophes. Sometimes, love really is all you need. Maurrie Aurmine is a Breton noblewoman the player can encounter on the road between Pelagiad and Balmora. She was recently robbed by Dunmer rogue Nelos Onmar. When the player first approaches her, they would be forgiven for thinking it's this robbery which has her upset.

On the contrary, Maurrie has become totally enamored with the highwayman. She even recruits the player to take her glove to Morrowind's most eligible thief. He then sends the player back with a romantic note. They either live happily ever after, or he just takes the opportunity to steal from her again - the player never gets the chance to see. If the residents of Vvardenfell want the rewards of being loved, they have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being mugged by an Elf.

Jiub

jiub morrowind

Jiub is the first face the player sees in Morrowind, and though its far from a pretty one, the Dunmer would go on to live one of the most interesting lives of any non-player character in The Elder Scrolls. Jiub found himself imprisoned with the Nerevarine after being made the patsy for an assassination of a House Redoran official. The actual Morag Tong assassin put the authorities on Jiub's trail to cover their own tracks, though Jiub had also hoped to carry out the killing to support a Skooma habit.

After being released alongside the player, he set about redeeming himself in a way that would make any Morrowind player proud - killing every single Cliff Racer in the province. Retitled Saint Jiub by Vivec and even getting given his own festival, he moved to Kvatch just in time for the Oblivion Crisis to strike. Killed and trapped in the Soul Cairn after his death, he would eventually be released by the Dragonborn, along with his autobiography.

Vivec

Vivec Inside His Palace In The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind

Vivec is one of the most interesting NPCs ever featured in The Elder Scrolls. One of the three god-kings of the Tribunal, Vivec is a living land of contrast. Although born male and referred to with masculine pronouns, the Chimer actually became both male and female when he became the transcendent evolution of Mephala, the Daedric Prince depicted as a spider seductress, liar, murderer, and many other traits which seem at odds with Vivec's own surface-level benevolence.

Sotha Sil, one of the other gods of the Tribunal, describes Vivec as "a poet" but warns that, as with poetry, Vivec is "born to seduce." Vivec is one of only two known Elder Scrolls characters to have achieved CHIM - the realization that they are just figments of a dreaming godhead's mind while asserting their individuality regardless. Like so many aspects of Vivec, it's hard to pin down.

Vivec is key to Morrowind's story and lore, but he also showcases the influence of Hindu mythology on the game. The image of a god visibly split down the middle, both male and female, is very similar to the depiction of Hindu deities like Ardhanarishvara, the Half-female Lord. His name is likely taken from the concept of Viveka, described in the Sanskrit poem Vivekachudamani as the ability to discern between the real - the unchanging - and the unreal - the temporal. This concept itself is likely a key influence on the idea of CHIM to begin with. Hopefully, The Elder Scrolls 6 has a character who's even half as interesting as Vivec.

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind is available now on PC.

MORE: Skyrim Mod Skywind is Probably Still a Ways Off