You remember that feeling of walking out of the sewers in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the first time? The bloom lighting was blinding. The grass was impossibly green. Most of us just started running toward the nearest map marker, but if you had the DLC installed, you probably ran into a frantic prophet screaming about the end of the world in Anvil. That was the start of Oblivion Knights of the Nine, and honestly, it changed how we think about "good guy" playthroughs forever.
It wasn’t just another questline.
Back in 2006, Bethesda was still figuring out what "downloadable content" even meant. We’d already suffered through the infamous Horse Armor debacle. People were skeptical. Then this dropped. It wasn't a massive landmass expansion like Shivering Isles, but it provided something Oblivion desperately needed: a cohesive, lore-heavy reason to actually be a hero.
The Prophet, the Pilgrimage, and the Infamous Infamy Reset
Most RPGs let you be a saint or a monster. Oblivion was always a bit weird about it. You could be the head of the Mages Guild and a high-ranking assassin at the same time. Oblivion Knights of the Nine forced you to pick a side. Literally.
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To even begin the quest properly, you have to talk to the Prophet outside the Great Chapel of Dibella. He tells you that Umaril the Unfeathered—an ancient Ayleid sorcerer-king—has returned to wreck havoc on the Octals. But you can't just go hit him with a sword. You have to become a crusader.
This starts with the Pilgrimage.
It’s tedious. You have to visit the Wayshrines of the Nine Divines scattered across the Cyrodiil wilderness. If you have a single point of Infamy—maybe you stole a loaf of bread in Skingrad or accidentally joined the Dark Brotherhood—the shrines won't talk to you. You have to reset your soul. This is a brilliant, if frustrating, mechanical choice. It forces the player to stop fast-traveling and actually look at the world Bethesda built. You're walking through the Jerall Mountains, praying at weathered stone altars, and feeling like a penitent knight.
Why Umaril the Unfeathered is a Top-Tier Villain
Umaril isn't just a generic big bad. He’s a demi-prince. His father was a divine being from a previous kalpa (world cycle). That’s some deep Elder Scrolls deep-lore right there. He was defeated by Pelinal Whitestrake eras ago, but because he’s part-spirit, he didn't actually die. He just waited in the waters of Oblivion to reform.
When he comes back, he starts by desecrating the chapels. Seeing the symbols of the gods smashed and the priests dead on the floor gave the game a much darker tone than the main quest's "close the orange portals" vibe. It felt personal.
Gathering the Relics: More Than Just Shiny Armor
The core of Oblivion Knights of the Nine is the hunt for the Crusader's Relics. These aren't just loot. They are pieces of Pelinal Whitestrake’s gear.
- The Cuirass is hidden in Priory of the Nine.
- The Gauntlets are stuck on the floor of the Chapel of Stendarr in Chorrol, weighing a ton because of a curse.
- The Greaves require you to help a fellow knight regain his honor.
You can't just "find" these. You have to prove you deserve them. The Gauntlets of the Crusader are a perfect example. You have to take on the curse of a descendant of a fallen knight. Your fatigue starts draining constantly. You’re physically weakened by the burden of being a "good person." It’s a literal mechanical representation of self-sacrifice.
The gear itself is gorgeous. In a game where most armor looks like "vaguely medieval steel" or "weird green glass," the white-and-gold aesthetic of the Crusader stood out. It looked like something out of a King Arthur legend.
The Priory of the Nine and the "Base Building" Vibe
One of the coolest parts of this expansion was restoring the Priory of the Nine in the West Weald. When you first get there, it’s a ruin. It’s depressing. But as you find the relics and your fame grows, knights from all over Cyrodiil start showing up.
- Sir Thendret comes from Skingrad.
- Sir Carodus is a former warrior who survived the attack on Anvil.
- Even some of the ghosts of the original knights hang out in the basement to give you advice.
By the end, you have a fully functioning order of knights. They follow you into the final battle. It made the world feel lived-in. It wasn't just you against the world; it was a movement.
Dealing with the Pelinal Whitestrake Lore
If you really get into the weeds of Elder Scrolls lore—shoutout to the folks at the Imperial Library and the UESP—Pelinal Whitestrake is one of the most terrifying figures in the mythos. He was basically a time-traveling, genocidal cyborg (depending on how literally you read Michael Kirkbride’s writings).
Oblivion Knights of the Nine softens him a bit for the general audience, but the hints are still there. When you talk to his ghost, he’s tired. He’s a man who won a war but lost his mind in the process. He warns you that being the Divine Crusader isn't a gift—it's a burden that will eventually consume you.
The DLC handles this beautifully by making the final boss fight a two-stage encounter. You fight Umaril in the physical world, but then you have to use a special blessing to follow his soul into the spiritual plane to finish him off. If you don't have the full set of armor, you literally can't survive the trip. It’s one of the few times a Bethesda game actually makes "set bonuses" feel narratively important.
The Problem with Being Too Good
There is a major downside to Oblivion Knights of the Nine that many players forget until it hits them. The armor is "holy."
If you do anything remotely bad after completing the quest, you can no longer wear the armor. You get a message saying "You are no longer worthy to wear the Crusader's Relics." It unequips everything. You're left standing there in your underwear in the middle of a dungeon because you accidentally picked a lock in front of a guard.
To get the "worthiness" back, you have to do the Pilgrimage again. All of it. Every single shrine. It’s Bethesda’s way of saying: "If you want to be the champion of the gods, you have to act like it." It’s annoying, but it’s also one of the few times an RPG actually holds you accountable for your actions outside of a dialogue tree.
Technical Legacy and the "Creation Club" Context
Looking back from 2026, we see this DLC's DNA everywhere. Skyrim eventually got its own version of the Crusader's Relics through the Creation Club (and later the Anniversary Edition), but it lacked the soul of the original. In Oblivion, the quest was about the journey. In Skyrim, it was just a "go to this chest and fight a guy" quest.
It’s also worth noting that this expansion was part of the retail "Knights of the Nine" disc, which actually bundled several smaller "official plug-ins" like the Wizard's Tower (Frostcrag Spire) and the Thieves Den. It was the first time Bethesda tried to package digital micro-content into a physical product.
How to Actually Play It Today
If you’re booting up Oblivion on PC or via Xbox backward compatibility, there are a few things you should know.
First, the armor levels with you, but not automatically. In the vanilla game, if you find the armor at level 5, it stays at level 5 stats. However, if you place the armor on the armor stand in the Priory of the Nine and then take it back off, it resets to your current level. This is a life-saver. Don't wait until level 30 to start the quest; get the gear early and just "refresh" it every five levels.
Second, watch your Infamy. If you're planning on doing the Gray Fox or Dark Brotherhood storylines, do them before or long after you finish the Knights of the Nine. Trying to juggle being the Divine Crusader and the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood is a recipe for a lot of walking to shrines.
Actionable Steps for your Next Playthrough
- Prioritize the Boots: The Boots of the Crusader give you a "Woodman's Blessing" that makes woodland creatures (bears, wolves, etc.) not attack you. It makes exploring the map 100% less annoying.
- Talk to Sir Berich Vallenreth: His backstory is the best piece of writing in the DLC. It’s a tragic tale of how a "holy knight" can fall from grace just by being a jerk to his friends.
- Use the Blessing of Talos: The final shout/spell you get isn't just for the boss. It’s an incredibly powerful tool for late-game combat, but it carries a heavy cost to your attributes if you use it carelessly.
- Don't Fast Travel to Shrines: Use a map online to find the general locations, but walk between them. The encounters you find in the "between" spaces of Cyrodiil are where the game's emergent storytelling actually happens.
Oblivion Knights of the Nine isn't just a piece of gaming history; it's a blueprint for how to do "Paladin" archetypes correctly. It demands something from the player beyond just button mashing. It demands a specific way of interacting with the world. Even twenty years later, that’s a rarity in open-world RPGs.