Tamriel Rebuilt is a massive community modding project for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind that aims to seamlessly add the mainland of the Morrowind province to the original game. The mod is released as a series of fully-realized expansions which are ready to be played. The released areas so far include more than a third of the mainland’s landmass, thousands of interior locations and roughly 360 quests.

Welcome to another Tamriel Rebuilt progress roundup, following on from last April’s. There is exciting news this time – the grand merging of the Dominions of Dust expansion has now begun! Our internal, in-development mod is organized into different “section files” – Morrowind .esp plugins which contain large chunks of our new lands, interiors, NPCs and dialogue. Significantly, the particular section files that make up Dominions of Dust have very recently been merged into our main plugin, TR_Mainland. This means that Tamriel Rebuilt has now permanently grown by several hundred new exterior cells, for the first time extending to the western border of Morrowind – there is no turning back!

As a consequence of this and the earlier merging of our Embers of Empire development plugin a few months ago, it is now inevitable that both of these upcoming expansions will be released simultaneously, as a double feature combining to make the biggest single Tamriel Rebuilt release yet (at least in terms of the amount of playable content).

The second big news is that the first new quests and questlines are now not only complete, but are swiftly getting reviewed and merged! To find out which ones, read to the end of the newsletter – like last time, we will begin this overview of the last quarter’s progress in the order of our development pipeline: concept art, assets, exteriors, interiors and, finally, quests. If you are interested in finding out more, the links below will take you to individual claim pages. But beware that these pages will, by definition, contain spoilers – after all, our mod development happens completely in the open.

Concept art

A ton of beautiful concepts were made for TR in the past months by a variety of talented artists, mostly for equipment, characters and creatures, as presented below. Make sure to also check out the stunning Tamriel Rebuilt poster, recently commissioned from Feivelyn.

Assets

Weapons

We could have a whole news post on the enormous amount of new and reworked weapons made this past quarter by the tireless efforts of our new 3D modeller AnrohaNexus, often based on Ateiggaer’s designs and vanilla Morrowind concept art. This has been complemented by the equally tireless work of our asset reviewer, Cicero, who has made sure all of these fit with our quality standards:

• Merged: A wonderful new set of gilded steel Imperial Templar weapons to serve as a high-end alternative to normal Imperial weapons. These include a battleaxe, dagger, longspear, longsword, shortsword, spear, waraxe and a warhammer. Abby subsequently improved their weapon stats.
• Merged: A massive expansion of the Imperial weapon set present in vanilla Morrowind, consisting of a warhammer, wakizashi, tanto, throwing star, spear, saber, mace, longspear, knife, halberd, dart, daikatana, dagger, crossbow, club, claymore, bolt, battleaxe and arrow. Others, including the imperial waraxe, longsword and katana, which had already been present in Tamriel_Data thanks to Province: Cyrodiil, were reworked.
• Merged: Many additions to the vanilla Nordic weapon set, such as a warhammer, longspear, staff, mace, knife, halberd, dart, club, bolt and arrow.
• Merged: A stalhrim battleaxe, seen in concept art for Bloodmoon.
• Merged: A large expansion of the vanilla Orcish weapon set, with animations by revenorror (Draconik). This includes a dagger, shortsword, broadsword, club, staff, crossbow, throwing dart and throwing knife and a longspear. Additionally, the longsword, claymore, war axe, mace, spear, halberd and longbow received much-improved models. After review, Cicero subsequently fixed some issues with the mace and halberd.
• Merged: An imaginative expansion of the vanilla dreugh weapon set, including a waraxe, mace, dagger, shortsword, spear and halberd. The aim is to flesh out the set as a higher-level cousin to chitin. Several other dreugh weapons, including a short bow, sabre and various throwing weapons, are still awaiting review.
• Merged: A small new set of Indoril weaponry to match the armor from vanilla Morrowind, including a spear, mace and scimitar.
• Merged: Several finely-crafted additions to the ebony weapon set, including a saber, bolt, club, throwing knife, crossbow (animations from Aleist3r) and spear, and improved replacements for the already-present ebony warhammer and battleaxe.
• Merged: Several new glass weapons, such as a broadsword, bow, longspear and a club (the latter with help from Kynesifnar) to round out the vanilla set.
• Merged: A few new adamantium throwing weapons.
• Merged: Many additions to the vanilla silver weapon set, including a broadsword, tanto, wakizashi, dai-katana, battleaxe, club, throwing knife, mace and longspear.
• Merged: New steel longspear and bastard sword and a rework of our steel scimitar.
• Merged: Additional iron weapons for the vanilla set – katana, dai-katana, throwing star and longspear – and a rework of our iron scimitar.
• Merged: Four new wood and corkbulb staves.
• Awaiting review: Additions to the chitin weapon set are now finalized – a staff by revenorror and a knife, sickle, longsword, halberd and mace by AnrohaNexus, based on Morrowind concept art and new art by Ateiggaer and Leyawynn.
• In progress: Additional 6th House weaponry – a dagger by Leyawynn, longbow and arrow by revenorror and a short saber by AnrohaNexus.
• In progress: To cut down on the overabundance of bladed artifacts in Tamriel_Data, Cicero is looking to convert some into generic Dunmer/Chimer weapons. These include the swords seen wielded by the Ruddy Man and a dagger seen held by City-Face in Morrowind’s concept art (meshes by Cicero). AnrohaNexus has furthermore reworked the mesh for the Swiftcut Blade – a once-artifact to be made into a common saber.

Other developers have chipped in with their own weapons assets as well:

• Merged: Bloodrust, an artifact sword made out of blood salts solidified into crystal. It was created by the Ideal Masters and rewarded to those who serve them in the Soul Cairn. Hence, you will be able to find it in the upcoming Necrom Mages Guild questline. Made by Cicero, reviewed by Chef.
• Merged: An improvised dwarven throwing star, representing a discarded saw blade, was made by Hemaris and reviewed by Cicero.
• Awaiting review: Cicero added a gold rapier based on the adamantium rapier mesh generously donated by the OAAB team.
• In progress: Reizeron (R-Zero) recently made a separate mod to replace the vanilla iron warhammer mesh with a variant that better fits the in-game dialogue. Thanks to the open permissions, TR hopes to instead include this well-made model as an additional variant.

Armor and clothing

A much harder task than weapons, several new and exciting armor sets are, nevertheless, done or close to being done:

• Merged: A completed Nordic ringmail armor by AnrohaNexus to complement to cuirass present in the vanilla game. This will come in very handy in future Redoran expansions. Based on Morrowind concept art and new concepts by TyGl20 and Aldergo, reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: The Shield of Abernanit, an artifact known from “Death Blow of Abernanit.” One of the last remaining Dagoth shields, perhaps in the possession of a Buoyant Armiger. Made by AnrohaNexus and Cicero, reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: New leveled lists for armor and containers by Chef to help sprinkle our new armors throughout Tamriel.
• Awaiting review: A regular uniform for the Imperial Navy and an officer’s version by Worsas from the Project Tamriel team, based on the variants seen in TESA: Redguard and the TESRenewal project. Most useful for the upcoming expansion of Province: Cyrodiil, these armors will also feature in Firewatch, being one of the main ports of the Eastern Navy.
• In progress: Guarskin armor, conceptualized by Gnomey and Pickles as a low-tier medium armor, is currently being worked on by AnrohaNexus – though textures still need replacements, all but the cuirass and helmet models are done.
• In progress: Substantial improvements were made to PulcharmSolis’ unique Quey shellmold armor from the Padomaic archipelago of Cathnoquey by Vidi_Aquam and Kynesifnar. Cicero is still working to fix the last few issues.
• In progress: a spiked iron helmet variant from Morrowind concept art by AnrohaNexus. This will complement the spiked iron pauldrons already present in Tamriel_Data.
• In progress: Possible new hooded robe variants by jawohl.

Architecture

The volume of architecture meshes in our data repository has greatly increased, largely thanks to the huge amount of freely available Dwemer architecture models recently made by the talented OAAB team:

• Merged: Innumerable new pieces of Dwemer architecture that will significantly improve the variety of our new Dwemer ruins, including a corridor ceiling and a new cave shell by c0dacan0n, lava/oil/water pipes and metal scraping effects, grate floors and a modular pipe set, a set of suspended Dwemer chain-link corridors, and modular ruins, a round room, a freestanding doorjamb and a vat, all the latter generously donated by the OAAB team. These assets were converted for Tamriel_Data by revenorror and reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: S’Wit (DarkKnightComes) added some useful transition pieces for the Hlaalu large interior architecture set, upon request by our interior developers. Reviewed by Chef.
• Merged: Several pieces by Hemaris that connect the large and small Velothi interior tilesets. Reviewed by Melchior Dahrk.
• Merged: A curved daedric exterior stairway by Cicero to aid building shrines on elevated terrain. Reviewed by Chef.
• Awaiting review: Additional corner and side-by-side pieces for Mwgek’s Hlaalu Sewer tileset. These ones were made by Kynesifnar.
• In progress: Kynesifnar has made good progress on the majestic Dres architecture. Now, all of the major pieces, including different kinds of canton bases and walkways, and a modular set for individual buildings are done, as are unique structures such as bays, silos, tradehouses, temples and council houses. What remains are doorway meshes, decorative trims and buttresses, fully-detailed textures and, not least, the interior architecture set.
• In progress: Chapel windows for the Akatosh chapel in Firewatch. The textures were recently completed by Gnomey.
• In progress: Chef is working on combining several of the new Hlaalu buildings in Shipal-Sharai and Narsis, built using Wolli’s modular Hlaalu architecture set, into bespoke meshes in order to improve performance and looks.

Furniture and statues

Along with interior architecture, these models do most of the work of differentiating our hundreds of interiors by culture and purpose:

• Merged: Urns for the Keptu-Quey, the human inhabitants of the Cathnoquey archipelago in the Padomaic Ocean by Kynesifnar and Asylum; reviewed by revenorror. Kynesifnar’s urns for the Chimeri-Quey, the archipelago’s elven inhabitants, have also been submitted for review over at Project Tamriel.
• Merged: A rework and expansion to the shrine of Hircine, originally by Melchior Dahrk. Cicero and revenorror fixed some issues, changed the pose and added a wolf companion, to better resemble his shrine seen in TES II. Reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: An entirely reworked version Sanguine’s shrine by revenorror and Cicero, to replace the prior version by Ashtaar and Melchior Dahrk. This rework closely aligns it with the statue variant seen in TES II. It will soon find use on Vounoura island.
• Merged: A large set of new furniture pieces donated by the OAAB team, including bookstands, wallscreens, shelves, dressers, desks, display cases, ladders and weapon racks, as well as two Imperial legion windows, torn Dragon tapestries, straw fill for crates and a wheelbarrow. The models were converted to Tamriel_Data conventions by revenorror and reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: Many new pieces of Dwemer Furniture by the OAAB team, including a stool, a variant stove, a smaller fan, a barrel with an ash pit, and variants of different dwemer machinery and lights, along with some miscellaneous thingamajigs. The models were converted by revenorror and reviewed by Cicero.
• Ready to merge: A simple retextured market shelf for Dunmer traders by Vern and Mark, reviewed by revenorror.
• Awaiting review: S’Wit completed a total rework of our extensive Dunmer middle class furniture set (originally by Vegor and Sirrah) to add more variety, improve textures and bring the proportions and aesthetics more into line with Dunmer furniture from vanilla Morrowind.

Clutter and other small items

These are mainly used to make our interiors seem more lived-in and to allow for better visual storytelling:

• Merged: A pouch for ingesting Wasabi, the popular Nordic delight sourced from the archipelago of Cathnoquey. Model made by AnrohaNexus based on a concept by Gnomey, reviewed by revenorror.
• Merged: A crystal ball useful for mages, inspired by the model from Oblivion. Made by c0dacan0n and Hemaris, reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: Dwarven repair hammer by AnrohaNexus, reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: Wonderful new Dwemer puzzle activators donated by the OAAB team were reformatted for Tamriel_Data by revenorror and reviewed by Cicero. These assets, which include buttons, and repairable pipes and apparatus, will enable new types of puzzles in our Dwemer ruins.
• Merged: A plate that was missing from the new Dunmer blueware table clutter set. Made by revenorror, reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: Some small texture swaps by revenorror to improve our cooking knives and Orc skull. Reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: We recently converted broken bottle assets from static items – i.e., ones you cannot pick up – to normal miscellaneous objects. Cicero added the missing icons needed for this change. Reviewed by Chef.

Environmental

Models and textures for natural environments:

• Merged: Snowy variants of Azura’s Coast textures and new darkstone textures, based on an underlying layer of Azura’s Coast textures, were submitted by Cicero and reviewed by Chef. These are meant to be used in the Sea of Ghosts and Telvanni Isles regions and will be seen on the northern isles of Vounoura and Althoa in upcoming TR expansions. Hemaris submitted some further snowy variant textures, including of darkstone, but these remain unreviewed.
• Merged: Bespoke assets for the shrine of Sanguine on Vounoura, including sanguine fires and red roses. By Cicero, reviewed by Chef.
• In progress: Stripes tried out many iterations of the cavern set for Shipal-Shin. Lacking opportunity to work on it further, he passed the set over to S’Wit, who is already making swift progress. Once this asset is finished, many more interior claims in the Shipal-Shin region can be opened.
• In progress: A new aspiring asset developer, Kusy, is working on implementing 10Kaziem’s concept for the Alchemist’s Globe, a fungi that grows in shallow, stagnant water in the Sundered Scar region.
• In progress: Kusy has also worked on remaking our ancient and rather low-quality Hamum Root assets.

Creatures

Creatures are perhaps the trickiest Morrowind assets to get right, given it requires a whole other set of skills compared to other assets – rigging and animation:

• Merged: A major rework by revenorror of all the orc heads added in Tamriel_Data to remove excessive polygons and texture use, helping performance and aesthetics. Reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: Lamb Shark (Sandaron) made extensive mesh and animation improvements to his wonderful Seducer and Dark Seducer daedra. These devious creatures will feature prominently in our upcoming Daedric ruins. Reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: Lamb Shark’s rework of the Land Dreugh model, now including a terrifying new face. Useful not only to Province: Cyrodiil, but also for TR’s upcoming Dreugh citadels. Reviewed by Cicero.
• Merged: The Redoran hunting hounds (placeholder name) by Lamb Shark were finally merged after sitting in our asset browser for a while. No issues were found during review by Chef and Rats.
• Merged: Chef did a big cleanup of various leveled lists, including of Daedra and Boethiath’s Spine creatures to improve balance and consistency and to remove duplicates.
• Awaiting review: Several variations of animated and static Argonian skeletons by revenorror. These will come in very handy in Deshaan and, eventually, Argonia.
• Awaiting review: Two variants of sturgeons and related clutter by the OAAB team, converted by revenorror. These will find use in the Sea of Ghosts.
• Awaiting review: A simple purchasable pack guar at Old Ebonheart by Why. After all, the Tribunal expansion offered beasts-of-burden followers for sale, so why shouldn’t TR do the same?
• In progress: revenorror made some major texture, UV, and skeleton fixes to Asylum’s old Octonetch model (placeholder name); only animations still need to be added. This fearsome predator will feature in the Othreleth Woods region.

Literature

New literature assets tend to linger in our asset browser for a long time, since reviewing them requires extensive lore knowledge of both Morrowind and Tamriel Rebuilt, good writing skills and the most subjective of decisions:

• Awaiting review: Parables Concerning Purpose by Delemis – a pair of Indoril parables about understanding your place in life.
• Awaiting review: Taniquetil updated her proposed full text of The Armistice – the document signed between Tiber Septim and Vivec which established Morrowind as an Imperial province. If there is consensus in including this text in the mod, it will feature in Old Ebonheart.
• Awaiting review: Edits to the vanilla Mages and Fighters Guild charters by Taniquetil, to take into account the mainland guildhalls. Don’t worry, vanilla purists – these edits will be contained in our optional TR_Factions plugin.
• Awaiting review: Placeholder city/district guides by Mark. Eventually, we want to have illustrated guides for most TR locations, similar to the Vvardenfell and city guides in vanilla. Before these are written, however, these placeholders will help interior developers work like the books already exist.
• In progress: Taniquetil completed the first of the Nine Parables of Almalexia – nine skill books to mirror the 36 Lessons of Vivec, each displaying an aspect of Almalexia’s mercy.

Miscellaneous

Other new items in Tamriel_Data include innumerable little fixes and a new approach to unique spells:

• Merged: A ton of fixes by Cicero to various things like creatures, weapons, armors, ingredients, region sounds, roadsigns (also by MinerMan60101), leveled loot lists and other items, as well as deprecations of old and no-longer-wanted items. Reviewed by Chef.
• In progress: We have recently decided to start leveraging the powerful Lua scripting capabilities present in the Morrowind Script Extender. As a first step towards this, Chef created a series of modified variants of vanilla summon, bound and reflect spells. While these will retain full, if familiar, functionality in OpenMW and unmodified vanilla Morrowind, users of MWSE will see them overridden with unique spell effects, such as a “reflect damage” spell, summons of various new Daedra added by TR and more. Moreover, to got with these effects, Cicero created new spell icons in the style of vanilla; Chef has already reviewed and merged some of these. Don’t worry – once Lua scripting for OpenMW matures, we will provide similar functionality for that engine as well.

Exteriors

Much exciting progress has been made in the exteriors department, but there is plenty of work to go around. Although Othreleth Woods claims were opened up earlier this year, much of the land is still unclaimed, due to the paucity of developers. Hence, now is a great time to try becoming an exterior developer. If you are interested in helping out, consider attempting a showcase – we will guide you through the process if you come talk to us on our Discord server.

Embers of Empire

• Chef has overhauled the environs of Firewatch, including the peninsula just north-west of it, i.e., the Molagreahd 03 claim (reviewed by MinerMan60101). New strongholds, daedric and dwemer ruins, and other locales will capture the interest of exploring players and will feature in upcoming Firewatch quests. Above Firewatch now towers the volcano of Mt. Sarrunabi – the city and its surroundings now truly look the part of a steadfast Imperial stronghold perched on a hostile shore, at the limit of Imperial influence.

• As part of the same crusade, MinerMan60101 completed the overhaul of the coastline between Firewatch and Helnim in the Molagreahd 02 claim, which was subsequently reviewed and merged by Chef. This land, some of the earliest work of the prolific Noirgrim, was overhauled to a more engaging Azura’s Coast-like landscape to bring a unified feel to the Inner Sea, and filled up with several new interior locations. With that, the eastern part of the upcoming Dominions of Dust expansion can now be considered exterior-complete, especially given MinerMan60101’s smaller overhaul of Urlis Rock north-east of Althoa and other touch-ups around the mod exterior (e.g., the removal of many rock arches and Dwemer observatories) by him and Taniquetil. That is, unless MinerMan60101 manages to squeeze in a final small overhaul of the area just north-east of Helnim.

• Taniquetil and MinerMan60101 furthermore reworked the stretch of the Inner Sea bottom between Vvardenfell and Firewatch. Replacing the unnavigable menhir mess of yesteryear is a sea trench host to a small underwater volcano and several wrecks from the Battle of the Inner Sea, when Old Ebonheart’s former governor – in truth, a daedric doppelgänger – tried to conquer Firewatch during the Imperial Simulacrum. Gone is also the odd little island of Mengada-Ngada that used to butt into northeastern Sheogorad.

• Given the above major changes to Telvannis’ western coastline, it only made sense to look over the region assignments on the peninsula. Those had always been a little haphazard, given that this early-2000s landscape was developed prior to a solid plan regarding regions had emerged. Now, the newly overhauled stretch of coastland that used to constitute parts of the rather mild-mannered Molaghread, Boethiath’s Spine and Helnim Fields regions will instead be called Dagon Urul and have a small chance of ash storms, as befits this hostile shore. Helnim Fields was provisionally renamed to Dumaltha in order to avoid technical issues with dialogue filtering in the town of Helnim. Finally, the northeastern bit of Telvannis, making up old Molagreahd’s other half, is now called Sunad Mora. These names come from Mark’s impressive proposal for a far-future overhaul of Telvannis, the details of which are still being debated.

Dominions of Dust

• The Dominions of Dust also saw significant progress towards exterior finalization. The southern Velothi Mountains, a 2009-2011 creation by Nomadic1, Haplo, Nemon and Scamp, was finalized by Nemon and Phenoix12, who added a source for the Priyai river and brought the POI-density up to standards by the addition of Daedric ruins, ancestral tombs, troll dens, goblin caves and orc huts. Chef then finally reviewed the landscape, fixing many issues.

• In the Roth Roryn, Cicero made many touch-ups to interiors and exteriors. Quickly afterwards, a big step in the project development was the unification of the southern Velothi Mountains section with the Armun Ashlands and Roryn’s Bluff files into our main TR development file – TR_Mainland. Chef, who performed these merges, made sure to smooth some of the previous file borders and regional transitions. More work remains, such as fixing what is currently a nearly straight border between Roth Roryn and Armun Ashlands.

Hlan Oek

• The small Hlan Oek expansion has for a while been nearly exterior complete, following Vern’s and Chef’s overhaul of the town earlier in the year, although some fixes to remove excessive rock usage will be done in the future (not to mention possible reworking of the Sundered Scar). At least one major bit remains, though – Thirr Valley 08, marking the western border of the release and a four-way transition between the Armun Ashlands, Othreleth Woods, Coronati Basin and Aanthirin regions. As Chef has made more progress on all areas of the claim recently, the end appears close at hand.

• A possible addition to the Hlan Oek release could be Vounoura island – a secret location in the Sea of Ghosts involved in the Morag Tong storyline, which was created by Cicero in the course of a month, and has now been reviewed by Chef. Chef furthermore merged Vounoura with the previously completed Olanar to create a new Islands section file. You can read more about these in the previous news update.

Narsis

• The bulk of the exterior work for the Narsis expansion is, likewise, complete, with some remaining stragglers. The last remaining claim of the Coronati Basin region, Thirr Valley 06, has seen further progress by Gnomey. This claim hosts the rich Hlaalu town of Ud Hleryn and a transition into the Othreleth Woods region towards the west. It has had exterior and interior work done simultaneously, and the lion’s share of the toil is behind.

• In the arid Shipal-Shin to the south, claim Shipal-Shin 10, containing the Septim’s Gate Pass, was recently finished by mojo187 and is awaiting review. mojo187 furthermore added drumpears – Shipal-Shin’s defining flora – through parts of the previously finished region that were made prior to the asset being available. Meanwhile, Chef has worked further on Shipal-Shin 01, the heart of Narsis release, containing the eponymous city in the middle. This being one of the biggest cities in Morrowind, Chef is using his extensive experience to make it both grand and performance-friendly. Only the central quarter remains to be done; it, too, is progressing well.

Othreleth Woods

• The massive Othreleth Woods expansion now has all of its exterior claims open, but our exterior developers are few and far between and those present are focused on earlier expansions; hence, many of these have not yet received their claimants. Some work, however, is already being done, such as in the strip of Shipal-Shin bordering Cyrodiil. Phenoix12 is progressing through the more remote parts of his Shipal-Shin 16 claim, whereas its main bulk – the Hlaalu town of Salvelis, transitioning into the towering Velothi Mountains – is already finished. Tombomb47, a recently elevated exterior developer (although already a prolific interior designer), has been chipping away at Shipal-Shin 13, which contains Hla Rud, a sleeping mining community. Another new developer, Sevenup243, is making swift work of Shipal-Shin 11, a particularly remote and dangerous part of the region.

• Othreleth Woods proper is in a more preliminary state of development. The biggest chunk of work done so far is Othreleth Woods 01, Nemon’s large claim containing the moor that serves as a transition between the Velothi mountains and Othreleth Woods and which hosts the Hlaalu metropolis of Kragenmoor. Nemon has, in fact, been working on the layout of the city for a years now, but the recent completion of Othreleth Woods assets has supercharged his progress on the rest of the claim. Meanwhile, Fremennik has done preliminary work on Othreleth Woods 09 on the eastern side of the region. This claim borders the meandering Kanit river and contains Ald Lambasi, a ruined Redoran fort in what is now Hlaalu territory

Showcases

• Saddboye, a long-time community member and interior developer, has finished an Azura’s Coast-style island as an exterior showcase, which is awaiting the second round of review by Chef. Once any issues are resolved, Saddboye will be a welcome addition to the exteriors team.

Interiors

The interiors department has not lessened its pace in the past months. Major work continues on Dominions of Dust, Embers of Empire and further expansions and a host of new interiors claims remains available. Several new interior developers will help us bring these to life.

Embers of Empire

• Given the recent overhaul of the Inner Sea coast from Firewatch to Helnim, Embers of Empire has continued to receive a flurry of new interiors even after the cities themselves were completed. Reviewed and merged interiors in the northern half of the overhaul area include a grotto and an ancestral tomb by Fremennik, the lava-filled Dwemer complex of Rthungzark on the shoulder of Mt. Sarrunabi by c0dacan0n, a wrecked navy cutter near Althoa by PeterFargoth and a special wreck in the Sea of Ghosts by Cicero, containing the famed spear of Nandor Beraid from the vanilla book Armorer’s Challenge – an important element of the upcoming Old Ebonheart Tournament questline (reviews by Cicero, MinerMan60101 and Mark). Completed, but still awaiting review are the stronghold of Koranyon by Fremennik, whose pirate inhabitants harass the Sea of Ghosts, the Dwemer ruin of Bthalag-Zturamz by c0dacan0n, original home of the fabulous staff Oathrung, a small ancestral tomb by Frun1987 and the wreck of TEM Predator’s Gold by Syzygy – a repurposed Dunmer ship that was used by the duchess of Firewatch to defend the city against attack from Old Ebonheart. Still in progress are c0dacan0n’s Sarrunabi Caverns, a lava cave complex under the volcano near Firewatch, and an ancestral tomb by Hemaris, who can’t resist the temptation of creating new architecture models while working on the claim. Worth mentioning are also innumerable fixes and improvements to already finished Embers of Empire interiors by Taniquetil, often to backfill newly created assets.

• Towards the south, between Firewatch and Helnim, recently-merged interiors include the bandit-infested Chimer stronghold of Mandaran and an ancestral tomb by Fremennik, the small Dwemer tower of Yaztaramz by Ataemus, a Velothi tower by Vidi_Aquam, inhabited by a Telvanni squatter, an egg mine and a merchant ship that sank on the trip between Firewatch and Helnim, both by Aidan1470 (reviews by Cicero and MinerMan60101). Still awaiting review are Kannidamarus, a daedric shrine to Molag Bal that was referenced in the vanilla book Invocation of Azura, Onimushili, a shrine to Malacath (both by our resident daedric ruin enthusiast Am’Shak), as well as an ancestral tomb (by The Laughing Gnome) for the legendary St. Taldeus, whom you may remember from the Imperial Cult questline in the original Helnim. Nearby, the ancient Dwemer interior of Mzankh, originally made by Aaron in 2005, received a slight refurbishment by c0dacan0n.

• Further afield, and slightly outside the overhaul area proper, TR decided to finally pull the trigger on the Telvanni Library, which had for a long time been slated for deletion, owing to its ill-fitting nature in the virulently individualistic Telvannis. In its stead, Jackimoff Wackimoff made a Velothi tower called Shularon, inhabited by a rogue conjurer (reviewed by Cicero). Likewise, Taniquetil deleted Cephorad Keep near Tel Muthada in order to further reduce the Imperial presence in the hostile Telvanni interior. The respective NPCs and quests have now been repurposed and moved into the Telvannis interior or Helnim, whereas a house from inside the keep’s walls has now found a place in Old Ebonheart.

Dominions of Dust

• Dominions of Dust is more complete in the interiors sense, but touch-ups continue. Most recently, Jackimoff Wackimoff fixed literally thousands of small item placement errors and Cicero made substantial changes to some older interiors that were made when current quality standards were not yet in place. A newly merged addition is the Omaynis Inn, which will be built during the House Hlaalu questline (by PeterFargoth, review by Jackimoff Wackimoff). Cicero continued to make progress on the caverns of Bal Foyen underneath Andothren – mysterious dungeons involved in Almalexia’s great flood.

• In the Velothi Mountains, a new set of 11 critical interiors have also opened up for claiming – this was thanks to Taniquetil, who in putting together an updated version of our gridmap noticed the relative paucity of dungeon content in the area, prompting Phenoix12 to add many more points of interest in the region. Three of these, the Shaman’s dwelling in Mazkun, the first Malak-Bazhul orc dwelling in our mod, a remote Velothi tower high in the mountains, both by Mark, and a wolf den by Denis418, have already been reviewed by Cicero, Vern and Jackimoff Wackimoff; the wolf den is now merged. Khazar has, furthermore, finished an old ancestral tomb on the remote shoulder of Mt. Dunul. Finally, another ancestral tomb in the foothills has seen substantial progress by Aidan1470.

Hlan Oek

• The completion of the recently overhauled town of Hlan Oek is close at hand. Mark and Cicero have reviewed, but not yet merged a well-appointed Governor’s mansion by PartiallySane, Dubba_D’s slaver’s business, a caravaner’s house by Tombomb47, Syzygy’s slummy apartment block, and a ship under repairs by Anneryl.

• Outside town, the new governor’s mansion for the village of Idathren, originally made for Hlan Oek by TheDarkKnight, was rearranged and re-reviewed by Mark, and a dreugh grotto by Ataemus, which had been sitting in the claims browser for quite a while, was finally reviewed by Vern, as was a newer grotto by Syzygy.

• Possibly included with the Hlan Oek expansion will be TR’s take on the island of Firemoth. It seems that last month’s teaser news post rekindled some interest, as soon afterwards a Legion transport ship by Jackimoff Wackimoff that sank during the siege of Firemoth was reviewed by Cicero. Cicero also took a look at two other long-complete claims, after which their claimants swiftly fixed remaining issues – the fort’s ruined keep by Evil Eye and the dock tower by Denis418. These still have to undergo a final review process.

• Similarly, we hope to feature the island of Olanar in this expansion. To that end, Taniquetil recently did some work on a shell for the ruined Telvanni tower of Tel Inan, before passing the claim over to Mark.

Narsis

• The rich town of Ud Hleryn on the mouth of the Kanit river made substantial progress again. This time around, merged interiors included the opulent Hleryn Hall by Mark, being the estate of Hlaalu Councilman Ivul Hleryn, the ruler of the city, an apartment block by Fremennik, a jeweler’s workshop by Serpentbyte and a potters workshop by revenorror, who even made a new potter’s wheel mesh for the purpose. Reviewed, but not yet merged, is the manor of a widely hated ex-Redoran lord by PartiallySane – the lord in question was paid off by Hleryn to join with House Hlaalu (reviews for the above by Mark and Cicero). The town’s Guild of Fighters was, furthermore, finished by Mark and is awaiting review, whereas the multifunctional Legion garrison building by Ataemus remains in progress.

• In the rest of the Coronati Basin, MinerMan60101 reviewed the main tower of Ald Marak by Phenoix12, the last Redoran holdout on the Thirr River. Vern, furthermore, reviewed a Nix Hound den and an insect-filled grotto, both by Ataemus. Additionally, Saddboye completed the Sadrathim Temple of the Divines, which had previously been worked on by laflamenca – here and in other places across Hlaalu lands, many native Dunmer have come to worship of the western gods, although with a local twist. PartiallySane created the wreck of a small ship that sank thanks to its inebriated sailors, PeterFargoth finished a hamum root farm and (Fürst) Thal made a den of swamp trolls on the shore of Lake Coronati. All four of the latter claims are awaiting review.

• Moving down into the Shipal-Shin region, several claims were reviewed, but not yet merged, including the manor building of the wealthy Adavrin Netch Ranch by PeterFargoth, as well as its retainers’ house and guard tower, both by christixn, the impressive Temple of False Thinking at the source of the Thirr, known from the 31st Lesson of Vivec and created by Cicero, a storage building for a tanna farm by Nats482 and Jackimoff Wackimoff and two sets of tents for the indigenous Dunmer nomads by Khazar and Anneryl, respectively (reviews by Mark, Cicero and PeterFargoth, our newest interior reviewer). Finally, some progress was made by PeterFargoth on a Velothi tower that houses a Dark Brotherhood cell.

• Significantly, the first interior claims are almost ready to go in the city of Narsis – since the large Market Quarter has been finished for a while, Mark and Chef completed a series of preliminary designs for its interiors, seeking to utilize much of the large volume of interior work completed for our prior iteration of Narsis, though with modern touch-ups. The Narsis superfan Mark has, in fact, been sneakily chipping away at the Grand Bazaar already.

Showcases

• The Laughing Gnome, guided by Jackimoff Wackimoff, successfully passed an interior showcase in two rounds and joined the development team.
• Jawohl decided to join the interior development team and is currently on the first round of his interior showcase, having received feedback from Jackimoff Wackimoff.
• Eschaton is new to Morrowind modding but went straight to making a TR showcase with a Seyda Neen cavern. Mark replied with his feedback and changes are pending.
• Horslats submitted a Hlaalu house as a showcase; feedback is pending.
• Lumpag has passed a showcase for Project Tamriel and joined TR as well. The reviews were done by Jackimoff Wackimoff and Mark. Lumpag has already created several interiors for different parts of Tamriel since then.
• Pirosmani99 is going through the first stage of their showcase, having been reviewed by Mark.
• DrBongo applied for both interior and quester roles but chose to stick with the former. Jackimoff Wackimoff guided them through the process and Mark granted the interior developer badge.
• RDV built an ancestral tomb as their showcase and are being guided by Mark.
• W*E*R*D*N*A, our long-time lurker and a lorebeard, finally chose to become a part of the interior development crew. They passed the showcase and received a developer badge from Mark.
• Maurvir posted a middle-class Hlaalu home and workshop as a showcase. A preliminary check was done by Mark and Maurvir has already fixed several issues.
• Boyos most recently posted a Hlaalu building as showcase, which is still awaiting review.
• The same is also true for Furnderug, who made an alchemist’s house in Hlaalu style.

Quests

The quests department is really heating up, especially in relation to Embers of Empire, which has skyrocketed in progress in the past few months. This is not least thanks to our many new quest developers, Mort’s (mortimermcmire) valiant efforts in quest and showcase reviewing and Denis418’s in playtesting. Hence, the completion of the roughly two hundred quests currently tracked to be included in the two upcoming expansions seems likely over the next several months. Moreover, we should mention the herculean work of Evil Eye and Rakanishu in refactoring our internal files to move much of the generic dialogue and NPC classes into Tamriel_Data. Taniquetil, too, has been fixing innumerable smaller and larger bugs and inconsistencies in our quests and dialogue.

Embers of Empire

• All non-quest dialogue for Embers of Empire has now been written and implemented in our development files by Taniquetil, including for Helnim, Firewatch and the northern parts of the expansion (Nivalis, Bahrammu, Tel Rivus and Bal Oyra). The dialogue was reviewed by Jackimoff Wackimoff and a variety of proofreaders. Together with Taniquetil’s earlier work in placing hundreds of old and new NPCs in these cities, her mammoth endeavor of populating the Imperial settlements of Telvannis is nearly complete. Taniquetil’s dialogue claims also included some extras, such as the Unwelcome Suitor, a quest adapted from an old TR precursor by groza528 and Bloodthirsty Crustacean.

• Continuing this streak of great news, the Helnim Imperial Cult is now the first merged questline for Embers of Empire. Its four missions were swiftly reimplemented by Evil Eye based on old TR variants (originally the work of gro-Dhal and Bloodthirsty Crustacean) and reviewed by Mort.

• Our new quest modder, WellTemperedClavier, completed the small Firewatch East Empire Company questline, a rework of the original version in Helnim by MMMowSkwoz, Stryker, Why, Terrifying Daedric Foe, 6+, Rats, Zobator and arvisrend. This adventure in three parts deals with contraband and keeping the Imperial money machine running. Although Firewatch will borrow only half of the quests from the old version, the others will be refitted for the Zafirbel Bay Company in Helnim or remade as miscellaneous Firewatch quests. The claim has now been reviewed and merged by Mort.

• Just a Sip is a side mission from a Red Dome Templar to bring him a bottle of incarnadine, a precious substance believed by the templars to be the blood of Tiber Septim. The quest, now merged, was also made by WellTemperedClavier and reviewed by Mort.

• WellTemperedClavier furthermore finished A Tighter Fit, which is a small quest about a jealous merchant in Firewatch. This one, too, was reviewed and merged by Mort.

• Out of Order is an investigation centered around the Drakelight Beacon and the Order of Firewatch. It was finished by pralec as a showcase, then reviewed and merged by Mort.

• The prolific abby made quick work of the Firewatch Fighters Guild, reimplementing and refitting one of the most beloved questlines in old TR, originally by groza528 and Bloothirsty Crustacean. This eight quests long adventure is now awaiting review.

• Although the Firewatch Imperial Legion has been complete since the last progress report, abby did some further fixes while the claim is awaiting review. This two-pronged questline consisting of nine quests allows you to aid either the righteous or the seedy side of the Dustmoth Legion.

• Five miscellaneous adventures on the island of Althoa and in Bal Oyra were implemented wholesale by our new quester Wannax and are now awaiting review, including the infamous Muskflies in Bal Oyra (now much less annoying). The quests are largely modified variants of old TR versions by groza528, Ludovic, theviking, Bloodthirsty Crustacean and Starcrunch.

• Am’Shak recently completed Lamplit, a Mages Guild quest in Helnim that involves the Order of the Lamp, being a knightly order devoted to the protection of the Guild, as known from TES II: Daggerfall. The quest is currently awaiting review.

• Jonado carefully reimplemented and expanded Gummidge – an infamously nonsensical quest from the old Firewatch, originally by Starcrunch and groza528. It is now awaiting review.

• Envy123 has finished Sugar and Spice, a story about an addicted legionnaire, now awaiting review. It is partly inspired by an old TR quest by The Greatness and MSam.

• abby is continuing her preoccupation with Imperial questlines and is currently very close to completing the Helnim Fighters Guild, a substantial rework of the old questline by paw-prints-in-the-mud, immortal_pigs and Beave. Only the final quest of five remains to be done.

• Our new quester pralec recently blasted through the Firewatch Thieves Guild in merely a couple of days and has now finished all but the last quest. These include a variety of jobs, some of which are reimplementations of groza528’s old questline, culminating in a new high-stakes heist in the College of Firewatch. The team has decided to merge the Helnim chapter of the guild with the Firewatch questline due to Helnim’s downsizing – there will be plenty of new and old content to keep you happy there, regardless.

• The Firewatch Imperial Cult, a combination and reworking of new and old quests from several locations (originally by Jedak, steady_eddy, gro-Dhal and Bloodthirsty Crustacean), is being implemented by Delemis fresh after his quest showcase. Three out of the six quests are already done.

• Taniquetil is chipping away at the Firewatch Mages Guild, the first quest of which is now complete. Taniquetil is very passionate about the Mages Guild in general and the Firewatch chapter in particular. This questline promises to lead us on a dangerous liaison with Daedric forces.

• Double Meaning, a new quest for the court wizard at Ember Keep, was claimed as a showcase by Tombomb47. He managed to write most of its journal text prior to having to drop the claim due to real life business.

• Although 6+ finished the Foul Murder questline – TR’s Necrom-based epilogue to the Morrowind main quest – some months ago, they recently provided a small update to fix bugs. The questline is currently waiting for review; some critical assets are still needed before this is ready to see the light of day.

Dominions of Dust

• The Fort Ancylis Imperial Legion questline by abby is the first Dominions of Dust faction questline to be merged into our main development plugin! These six missions written and implemented by abby will take you around House Hlaalu lands to lay down some overzealous law. Reviewed by Mort.

• The Andothren Morag Tong questline, also by abby and reviewed by Mort a few months back, was just recently merged.

• Lost in Transit, a quest about a lost son, completed a long time ago by Evil Eye and reviewed by Dillonn241, was finally merged by Evil Eye thanks to the Dominons of Dust section file merge.

• The Naked Witch – a quest showcase done by viol more than a year ago and reviewed by Cicero – was just merged by Evil Eye.

• Routine Delivery – a quest featuring a not-so-routine business transaction in Almas Thirr – is an impressive quest showcase by Delemis, subsequently reviewed and merged by Mort.

• crdgdr has swiftly finished Wicked Water Woes as part of his showcase, reviewed by Mort. This is a story of conflict between the Obainat ashlanders and House Hlaalu regarding a water source – a story which had been languishing in development for quite some time. Not any more – this quest is now merged!

• Of the action-packed Andothren Fighters Guild, dealing with ashlander heirlooms, only one out of 11 quests still remain to be done following several big updates from Rats.

• The massive Baluath Vampire questline has been nearly completed by Dillon241; only the explosive finale remains half-done. Owing to Dillon241’s lack of time, Mort has agreed to finish up the final bit, merging it with his own Orlukh Vampire questline (of which only one quest remains to be done, too), as the final parts of both stories interact with each other.

• The Andothren Thieves Guild questline will have you attempt to reestablish the city’s guild following a massacre by the Cammona Tong. Rats recently delivered several giant updates to the questline – most of the missions are done, as are many side stories. A few more quests and general polishing still remain.

• Our initial write-up for the Andothren House Hlaalu questline proved to be problematic, as it was cobbled together from previously unconnected bits and bobs that never really meshed. Thankfully, Jackimoff Wackimoff and Jonado have toiled to rewrite and polish the script and the questline is now in a much better place. Combined with Mark’s initial work and Envy123’s implementation of the Missing Merchant, Jonado’s latest update has brought it to six finished missions out of nine, as well as a small finished side quest.

• Why’s Andothren Temple questline has you interact with a host of colorful characters and wrangle with the corrupt leadership of the local Tribunal Temple. Progress has picked up again: three new pilgrimages and five quests are now done! Aside from some polishing, only two quests remain to be implemented.

• The Andothren Mages Guild questline focuses on the corrupting influence of Daedric secrets. This claim has passed several hands and is now being worked on by Jackimoff Wackimoff, after PhDinSorcery fixed and implemented quests 2 and 4. This leaves 5 out of 8 quests still to be done.

Showcases

• DrBongo submitted an adventure for Vvardenfell that you can also download from their Nexus page as a standalone mod. It proved a tad too complex for an effective showcase; the author is now working on a smaller-scale project for their next attempt.
• WellTemperedClavier, a talented book writer for the TES III province modding community, decided to join the project with a small encounter in Bitter Coast. After successfully passing the showcase with Mort’s help, he has already made a ton of contributions for both TR and Province: Cyrodiil, most recently including the entirety of the Anvil Fighters Guild questline.
• Delemis, a recurring developer, sent in a quest showcase that was already mentioned above. Guided by Mort, he has now become a productive quester for the Embers of Empire.
• pralec put a lot of effort into their showcase, a complex side quest based in Firewatch, as seen above. This one, too, was reviewed by Mort.
• Nerevec submitted a kagouti-hunting quest near Balmora as a showcase. After initial feedback from Mort, work on it continues.
• crdgdr initially submitted the entirety of the TES IV Whodunit? quest in the context of TES III Morag Tong. Given its large size, Mort offered them to instead claim a TR quest as a showcase. With help from Jonado they successfully picked up and implemented Wicked Water Woes.
• Lexyp submitted their faction mod Kolvas Tong - Druglords of Morrowind as a showcase. Given its complexity, they were offered to make a small quest for TR. Lexyp opted to do so for Necrom, a particularly under-quested TR city. It received the first batch of feedback from Mort and the showcase continues.

This concludes the progress for this past quarter! Hopefully, the next progress report will show us drawing closer and closer to the double-release of Dominions of Dust and Embers of Empire – certainly if questing retains its current pace. If you want to help us along in this matter, consider joining our team! There are plenty of tasks that can be picked up quite quickly, with no prior experience in modding, and we will be happy to guide you along. Otherwise, should you wish to follow our development more closely, come check out our Discord server, where we develop Tamriel Rebuilt in the open.

Credit: Denis418 for researching the whole claims browser. Images by PeterFargoth, Denis418 and developers listed in the captions.