So, what are some good recent games?

[Moldran]

are there any other Balmora-based or -started quests? Should I just go house-to-house, barging in and interrogating everyone about the geography of Vvardenfell? 

There are more Balmora-based quests, depending on what factions you join. There are also non-faction quests.

You can join more than 1 Guild, but only 1 Great House.

It might happen that a quest for a certain guild means causing harm to another guild. It might also happen that you become involved in an internal conflict in which you have to decide what side to fight for.
If you are expelled from a faction, you can rejoin them by talking to the right person and paying an amount of gold.

Some duties, not only ones for criminnal guilds, will be very hard to fullfill without breaking the law.
You can run from the guards and hide. In most bigger towns, there is a a person who can, for a price, remove a bounty you have on your head. Being a Thieve´s Guild member can be quite helpful for non-thieves also, even if only to get hold of informations. You can be a guild member without doing any duties. You just won´t advance in ranks.

Also, I'm assuming you can only join the Temple or the Imperial Cult, and not both. What are the differences between the two? Frankly, besides one group worshipping four gods and the other nine, I'm not sensing much difference. Or I may just be missing it. Pros/cons to each faction?

I never tried to join both, don´t know if it is possible. They basically provide the same services, but quests for members are different, of course. Naturally, the Imperial Cult is more outlander-friendly, I think. Can´t really answer your question, my character is not very religious, hehe.

Telvanni is the "mage" Great House, right? Guess my choice is easy, here.

Yup.

Hrmm, wish I could get a decent close-up frontal picture of Linel... She sure is purdy!

When you hold down TAB, you can move the camera around your character. I don´t know if you can take screenshots, but I would guess you can.

Also, why can't you make spells that are as efficient as the default ones? I bought Balyna's Purification (cure poison), but I didn't want to use someone else's spell, so I made an identical (Cure Poison for 1 second on Self) version I named Detoxify, but it cost 12 magicka to cast, while Balyna's cost only 6!

I am no expert for the magical arts, but I think the quality depends on your skill level. I don´t know the exact details, perhaps someone else can answer your question better.


Some general advice:
- Save early, save often, use more than 1 save slot.
- Listen to the local rumors. Some are useless for you, but some are not.
- In the beginning, concentrate on one faction. Do their quests. Check what skills you need to advance in ranks (in the character window, hold the mouse over the faction´s name), and train those. Once you have an experienced Mage, you can easily train him in 2 or 3 more skills you find important. The higher a skill is, the more money it costs to train it. Most trainers cannot train a skill higher than a certain lvl (75 ? Don´t remember). There are special experts that can train you up to 100, but they can be quite hard to find.
- Since you cannot add your own journal entries, making paper notes can really help. Murphy is also active in Morrowind. At some point early in the game, someone will tell you where the Alchemy expert lives when you ask for "a little advice", and by the time you need the expert, you will have forgotten and spend hours to find out who it is ;)
- If something is too hard for your char, come back later.
- Silt striders, Mage´s Guild teleporting and ships are very helpful to travel fast. OTOH, "adventure lies beyond the cities" ;)
- Take your time. Exploring Morrowind is fun.
- The Blades are the main quest. If you want to explore the world of Morrowind before "finishing" the game, do other things first. You can also play on after the main quest is finished, however.
- Be careful with killing people, especially people who hold important positions in Morrowind´s society. The player´s freedom in Morrowind is so great that the game does not hinder you to interrupt the main quest by killing a person that is important for the story. You will get a message that the main quest is broken, however. In such a case, you hopefully have a recent save game :)
- Invisibility deactivates as soon as you do any action (attack, open a door or a chest, etc). Chameleon does not, however. A high Chameleon % makes most critical situations in the game very easy.

Moldran