Deshaan Plains Concepts & Discussion

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10Kaziem's picture
10Kaziem
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Are those heart-valve doors? I like them.
 

Edit: Also, some art. Glowy worms for the caves.

Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.

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Hm, a few scattered thoughts:
-I actually like the idea of owning the hazmat suit look. It’s very much in-line with the gas-mask designs that have featured heavily into Morrowind’s visuals, and very much serves to make the Dres look unwelcoming. Naturally this would be protective clothing they’d only wear in very dangerous environments, not in their Clansteads.
-I like the floating jellies, but largely feel they’d look more at home along the Thirr, the Othreleth, or maybe the Mudflats. Somehow I imagine Deshaan’s skies as being very dead, except of course for the Skyrenders.
-I’m still not sure I like the plain brown look for the Skyrenders myself. Would it be possible to have them sort of pulse colours? Have a sort of glow that appears to come from beneath their exoskeleton that fades out and in again constantly. Otherwise, just have the glow appear in poor lighting conditions or something.
-I very much like the idea that Skyrenders build their nests out of a large variety of barely-digested matter; seems threatening in a more interesting way than just ‘Skyrenders want to eat you’. Also, of course, makes for more interesting interior design.
-I also like the idea of salt being incorporated into the nests, but am not sure how prevalent the salt elements should be; I could also see going the more restrained direction of having salt crystal mounds in the heard of the hive – almost like the Telvanni exploded soulgems at the core of their towers – and maybe some sort of Skyrender salt-lamps? Maybe intended as heat-lamps for Skyrender larvae and giving off a dim brown light?
-Sort of tied to some ideas thrown about in a Discord meeting, maybe the Skyrenders ‘lick’ the salt to change the properties of their honey excretions, being able to excrete both a sort of soupy bitter honey or more silk-like threads?
-At any rate I think I prefer the outside of the hive looking more organic, with the salt primarily appearing in the interior.
-in Lutemoth’s concept, the hive is built on top of a giant hermit crab creature, which would not always be the case. I do like the idea of queens essentially being built into the hive, or rather the other way around, but think I prefer nwo_viper’s take for that. (Great concepts by the way! Just what I wanted to see for the Skyrender hives, as I’ve had trouble envisioning how their interiors might look). But basically, we could have it both ways: queens are built into the hives, and the hives might sometimes be built on top of giant creatures.
-I personally do not think Skyrender hives should be subterranean as in hollowed into the ground, but I could see larger ones built into natural crevices, perhaps even spilling out of them, as well as small hives down in the salt washes.
-As a result, most hives would probably be medium-sized or small, wit a small number of larger ones.
-I do not think Argonians or Abolitionists should find refuge in hives, except for abandoned hives which could certainly be a thing.
-I think Skyrender hives shouldn’t have a lot of doors, but do like the heart-valve concept. Probably just to guard the ‘heart chamber’ and as the exterior entrance? Perhaps they (especially he ones guarding he heart chamber) should be ‘trapped’? Might be funny for players to probe them though; not sure.

Now, as for my ideas on Skyrender relations with the Dres. Really, I’d like to make a neat entry for the literature section, but I’ll have to keep it short-ish for now:
In the wake of Veloth’s passing in Necrom (or as some contend through Necrom), as the Chimer were building their houses throughout what is now Morrowind, one region defied even their hardiness and remained barren, and that was the unrelenting Deshaan. If the Chimer needed only contend with the toxic climate, lack of water and merciless sun, they might have managed as they had elsewhere. As it was, they had to contend with the clever, territorial Skyrender. These did not merely darken the skies like the Cliffracer, waylaying unwary travellers, but crept into the Chimer burrows and bug-huts at night, stole away their infants and elders and literally plastered their sorry remains on the walls of their hive-homes.
However, dutiful Chimer do not stop serving their families at death, and those lost to the Skyrenders could not stay quiet as those they left behind continued to suffer loss after loss. Before long, the Skyrender hives were humming with ancestor voices. These were among the first negotiations of the Dres, who had not had time to properly understand the teachings of their ward Mephala and who were still long from forming their House-federation. These were labourious, droning entreaties, one argument constantly being dropped as another took its place, probing the Skyrenders, trying to find a way to make them relent. For their part, the Skyrenders began listening to the hum, and they hummed back. Their larvae were nurtured with the hum, their elders became part of the hive with the hum, and slowly, the Skyrenders worked the hum into their hives and finally relented.
So the embattled Chimer clans, pushed at the hands of their stronger cousins into the borders of an unforgiving wasteland that had cost them so much, watched as the borders of that wasteland lifted before them, and the Skyrenders whose angry buzz had once kept them cowering by their hearths now hovered silent and vigilant, listening to a song that seemed at once distant and familiar. And so the clans travelled into the depths of the Deshaan, where their cousins could not hurt them, and the nurturing echo of their ancestors blew in the wind. They knew that they carried a great debt to the Skyrenders, their hosts, and a great debt to their Ancestors, who protected their futures, and they would never forget to honour either.

Which goes a long way to explaining why the Dres are so staunch in keeping to the old ways, why they consider it so important to honour their ancestors, why they like to keep to themselves and dislike outsiders, why they banded together to avoid absorption by their cousins the Indoril, but at the same time, and despite the gulf that formed between themselves and their cousins, why in their own way the Dres still think of their kin, and want to forge them a better future.

Incidentally, rather than Skyrenders being non-hostile to Dres as a whole, I’d rather imagine they’d be non-hostile towards the clans whose ancestors they have incorporated into their hives. In short, hive-loyalties would largely reflect the Dres clansteads, and a few hives – especially in the Salt Marshes – would probably be hostile to everyone.

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I’ve been throwing some ideas for a basic hive mesh set in Blender, would love to hear others thoughts.

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We talked about these during the meeting. The gist of it is: we like them and would like to see a few more potatoey shapes and maybe some horn-like structures. They looks good! Drop them in the Asset Browser.

Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.

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Concept for the Mudflats:

This image was made for the progress report to fill in a blank we have there. It depicts soggy mud islands at mid to low tide (the coast, looking north). The islands are covered in plants that lay down and dry out during low tide, but float back upright during high tide. You can see seaweed clumps tipped over or partially floating, twisted spindlewort, and a lillypad-flowering plant that has little air sacs. The idea is that you would see upright plants underwater and horizontal plants in shallow or no water. Also, shells and squidgy shell creatures roam around, and there are interesting pebbles. Notably, like in the Deshaan, there’s no real rocks or trees.

Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.

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Concept for the saltmarshes: Razorgrass, which is the origin gradd for grass blades. We could go either way with this, assuming it’s a native Deshaan plant (Dres origin) or a native marsh plant (Argonian). I would consider it to be unique to the area of the Salt Marsh though.

Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.

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Another concept for the salt marshes, this time a landscape. It’s been posted in the progress report, and I streamed the making of it. Yay.

Does: concepts, textures, youtube vids, admin stuff e.g. PR, handbook, assets, small website things. Activity level: wildly unpredictable. Still active. Find me on Discord.

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Beautiful.

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it looks amazing... but i feel as if there's something missing. it's not strange enough, or alien. it looks very cyrodil. 

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Will the Vereansu Ashlanders from ESO be added to Deshaan? Or any ashlanders added to any mainland areas for that matter?

“If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild.”

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There are Ashlanders, but they won't be the tribes from ESO.

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There are no Ashlanders in the Deshaan. The "natives" are the Dres.

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How many new tribes will there be on the main land?

“If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild.”

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Right, sorry, I thought you meant the mainland as a whole. Our Deshaan is not represented in ESO because ESO squished Morrowind, and, to be very frank, ESO's writing and lore is terrible, so most of their stuff has not made it into TR. But, for the loyalists, the Deshaan you see in ESO is our Mournhold District, which is controlled by the Indoril. 

There are at least 5 tribes on the mainland, but mileage has varied depending on what map I look at. There is the Kushimmu, Ishanuran, Obainat, Sennahanib, and Halaran at least.

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Hi I made some quick concepts for non-ingredient flora for the Deshaan. The names are pretty uninspired and just placeholders until someone has a better idea for their names. Also I'm not sure if they even need some lore, as they're just meant as props for landscaping, but I would have some ideas if needed anyhow.
 

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I like all of those concepts, especially the twister tree. I generally think larger plants like the Deshaan bush and twister tree should be few and far between on the open plains, with copses appearing near rocks and salt pans and the like. I could imagine loose woods as you show in the Salt Marsh and at the edge of the Mudflats, though.

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Yes I think so too.

Should I make asset requests for them?

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By all means.

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hi, I´m totally new here :)
just wanted to drop those and maybe you will like them - it´s some aerial photos of australian desert, with a bit of oases, nicely arid, no crevices though (which I would second if they were in the style of URU Ages Beyond Myst - not really visible from a distance but deep and with more or less lush vegetation and maybe a bit of water on the bottom - I am not sure how hard would those be to create in Construction Set)
also, wouldn´t it be nice to have creatures that would appear from under the sand - like the Mudcrabs in vanilla, when they were sinking into the ground
I´m not saying to go all Dune-gigantic-sand-worms but something like a sand-snake attacking from under the sand? would be quite cool, as it would not be so visible on flat desert terrain

anyways, I love MW and if I can contribute to your project I will, I am planning to do some concept art for this
check my deviantart page
https://kamaronsky.deviantart.com/
also I can record some sounds, music too, voices etc. maybe even write a quest :)

cheers!

 

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damn, clicked that save button too many times, cant find delete button ! sorry

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kamaronsky

damn, clicked that save button too many times, cant find delete button ! sorry

I've got you covered.

And I agree, the crevices would look best if they are only visible as cracks from a distance, and only when you fall go into them, do you find out how deep they are.

While I'm hoping the landscape tool can be manipulated to do this, more likely we may need some special assets.

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thank you!
I dont know if you want to use them but I have commited some textures, they are seamless but only 512x512
let me know, I could do some more
I was also thinking that maybe some of the desert creatures could use textures similar to the ground, as in to camouflage themselves so they would not be too visible from a distance (as in bright green nix-hound on ashlands)
 

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Daichi's picture
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Hello !

Sorry for the inconvenience. I'd like to ask a question because I was intrigued by something. The answer may have already been given somewhere on this topic or on the forum, but given my low level in English, I may have missed it.

In the "Pocket Guide of the Empire 1", the Deshaan plain is considered "fertile" (source). Which is totally different in TR.
What justifies this choice? And above all, the point that intrigues me the most, how is it going to be justified in game?
Is it because of the date difference between PGE1 (2E 854) and TES 3 Morrowind (3E 427)?

However I love this salt plain, I prefer it as you imagined it to the way described in the PGE1 (fertile, and therefore boring, common, unattractive).

I like rice.
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The out of game justification is that Alt Othren-Nedothril already acted as convential fertile plain in the heartlands of the mainland and so the goal was making something new and interesting. It must be said that deeshan is still full of saltrice plantatons so the in-universe justification the somewhat ignorant authors of the first pocket guide only knowing half the story (its a plain with plantations)  and not the true nature of the regions.

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I also agree: too much greenery kills greenery! We have to vary a bit (by the way, the south of Vvardenfell is really alien land).

We can also think that between 2E 854 and 3E 427, there may have been some change. But it is unlikely.
The Dres will want to get rid of the salt in these areas, right? Although useful, it must above all be a scourge (every nation wants fertile land).

Good luck with all that! If only I knew how to model, I would have helped you!

I like rice.
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Not at all the Dres chose to live on the deeshan explictyl because of its harshness, they only later learned from the sload (at great cost) the secrets of how to grow things in the salt so have very little interest in making it livable for outsiders. 

"Nomen album delenda est" - a great man

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Ok, thank you!

I like rice.

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