I finished up the main quest at level 21. I might play around with some side-quests. I briefly ran around Solstheim and used some bears for archery practice.
I think it would've been nice to allow a lengthy conversation with the heart like with Dagoth Ur. Imagine the interesting lore you could get.
As an aside, I find most magic items useless in the Elder Scrolls games (especially quest rewards) and instead prefer plain gear using high-level materials (e.g. Glass). But this one is totally awesome:
It's the perfect spelunking/dungeon crawling ring.
You don't need torches anymore, and stamina drain is no longer a factor. If only the ring was available much earlier.
I still remember struggling with finding torches in Morrowind and Oblivion. At least at first. I found it absolutely annoying to equip / unequip for fights (in the dark, while unequipped for said fight when both hands are needed) constantly. In Oblivion I remember avoiding dungeons in general and just progressing my character as much as I could on the surface / outdoors and in 'clearer' cities. Now, the major problem, however, was my lack of interest (and curiosity) in playing any other type of characters other than full on in-your-face melee classes and builds.
I generally needed both hands (in Morrowind and Oblivion) since 70% of the time I would make myself a two-handed berserker-styled character, and "having to" bring torches with me in dungeons, ruins, forts, etc... it was annoying at best. Sure, when not fighting, exploring and looting, or just walking around at night outdoors... it served its purpose. But more often than not, new Cells ahead loaded, new critters spawned, and you'd have that sudden Cliff Racer, or Wolf, or whatever coming at you and... once more, have to unequip, etc.
It took me until Skyrim (and only relatively recently, because I still wasn't curious enough back when the game had just been released) before I found a much better way around that 'problem'. About two years ago I played my first real long-lasting playthrough of the game (after installing a bunch of mods) and decided to try something new. I went full on Mage this time. The only prior 'experiment' I had made with builds outside of melee dates back to early Oblivion days when I tried an "Archer", it failed (hated it, hated the aiming, the engine for projectile and physics for arrows was just way too archaic; and I absolutely hated the auto-dodging from enemy A.I. and their auto-aiming against me). So, something as simple as 'now being a Mage' changed the dynamics of the game and my own approach to things. Instead of "looking around" for weapons and heavy armor, I looked around (from merchants, NPCs, etc) for SPELLS, and Scrolls, instead.
Lo and behold, one of the first Spell Tome I got my hands on was none other than a Novice level spell called Candlelight. It's available from that mage guy in the castle of Whiterun (Dragonsreach if I recall correctly), he sells that tome. It turns out that Candlelight is better in every possible way. It's an 'orb' hovering above your head, lighting up the immediate area around you. It lasts about a minute by default, and can be increased in duration with perks I think (and maybe potions too, or enchantments). The irony... I ended up having both hands free WITH a way to see where I'm going and not miss a chest in an otherwise dark corner of dungeons now that I'm not a melee character anymore. However, since the spell is super light on Mana cost, can be obtained for cheap and extremely early on in the game after the intro it allows for all sort of builds in the end. By default it doesn't need a perk anyway, any classes and builds can use it. The only "downside" (if that's one?) is to have to recast it every minute or so (I do think that dual-casting it with both hands make it last a bit longer, and I think there's mods out there that make it light up the room even more, increases the radius of effect, and even the lightning color and intensity, etc).
If only I had been more inquisitive and curious back in my Morrowind and Oblivion days... heh (I'm sure there's a similar or identical Alteration type spell in those games too that I just wasn't aware of that I could have used). Seriously, screw those torches, had enough with that crap.
Edit: Actually, now I remember one item I did find in Oblivion, it was a ring but I forget its name. The ring would illuminate the area around you, but I remember hating it since it would radiate an ugly bright green light everywhere (on all textures, walls, furniture, windows, floor, everywhere I was looking at received a sudden green tint on it; horrible). I remember using it for a few ruins and eventually getting rid of it and going back to my still-hated torches simply because the light provided by the fire was more pleasant to the eye (even though the ring in question did have a much larger radius than a torch had).
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