Old thread.

Note that, unless better terms are suggested (elsewhere please), I’ll be operating with the terms [State], [Faction] and [Group] from now on. States are essentially factions or faction groups which control an area to some extent; these can be major states, specifically the Temple, the Empire and the Great Houses which between them control most of Morrowind, or minor states like the Ashlanders who try to maintain some degree of autonomy from the major states and tend to be more localized. Factions are single organizations generally but not always represented by an in-game faction; Great Houses and the Temple are technically both states and factions. Groups are cultural rather than political groupings of people. The Empire is a state, the Imperial Legion is a faction, Colovians are a group.

Another big post, my apologies, but largely quotes and pictures.

Let's talk Empire visual direction for a moment. Naturally, the Empire is currently not really a focus, our focus being House Dres, but pretty much whenever the subject comes up I like to mention that we should really have figured out the Empire and the Temple (and by extension Velothi) first, not - as may end up being the case - almost last.

The reason I don't think it's practical to focus on the Empire and Velothi at the moment is because people seem to find those less interesting than the Great Houses. The Empire is presented as mundane by design; it is the familiar world which forms the starting point of the player's journey into the weirdness that is Morrowind. And most people who like Morrowind were attracted to that weirdness and left the mundane behind.

The issue with the Velothi is similar: the vanilla game does not give them a clear identity. Rather, the vanilla Velothi class is very specifically ex-Ashlanders and what we call Velothi are simply called non-House Dunmer, which is pretty illustrative of the problem. They are just the blank canvas, the backround from which the Houses differentiate themselves. They are defined by what they aren't. Vanilla Morrowind didn’t have the space to properly explore them, while we have so much space we practically need to explore them.

So while I don’t think we should focus on those very broad groups at the moment, I think now is a very good time to toss around loose ideas for them.

In the case of the Velothi, I think it's clear that we need to give them a distinct identity, which we have started to do. I think we should consider doing so for the Empire as well. The purpose the Empire served in the vanilla game has been served; pretty much anyone who plays Tamriel Rebuilt has already been drawn into the world of Morrowind. We now have the opportunity to explore the weirdness of the Empire, as long as we make its brand of weirdness very distinct from Morrowind's. We do not have to stick to the weird/mundane contrast, so long as a contrast remains.

Now taken to its logical conclusion, what I suggest would mean tossing all Imperial/common assets and making new ones that fit the new image. Naturally, that is not what I’m suggesting, but it is also not necessary: if you pay attention to Morrowind lore, (specifically leaving aside Daggerfall-and-earlier lore where the Imperials didn’t exist and Oblivion-and-later lore where Cyrodiil has been transformed), Bethesda did not make the Imperials and Cyrodiil a generic medieval fantasy cypher; they made the Empire as a body a generic western/European cypher and specifically High Rock a medieval fantasy cypher:

Pelagiad:

[...] It's a pleasant little village. If you didn't know better, you'd think you were in Daggerfall or some other High Rock town.

High Rock over 400 years ago:

Compared to Cyrodiil:

Provinces of Tamriel:

Cyrodiil is the cradle of Human Imperial high culture on Tamriel. It is the largest region of the continent, and most is endless jungle. The Imperial City is in the heartland, the fertile Nibenay Valley. The densely populated central valley is surrounded by wild rain forests drained by great rivers into the swamps of Argonia and Topal Bay. The land rises gradually to the west and sharply to the north. Between its western coast and its central valley are deciduous forests and mangrove swamps.

Cyrodiil over 400 years ago:

Cyrodiil, current time:

Province: Cyrodiil also has some great threads.

For the Empire as a whole, some of the clothing seems inspired by the early modern period, the EEC and Imperial bureaucracy make use of later influences, specifically the East India Company and the British Empire, and the Legion armour itself naturally borrows very directly from ancient Rome. Hence generic western/European; the Empire is deliberately anachronistic. It is a concept and a cypher, not an accurate portrayal. (As applies to most things in TES games). The specifically medieval influences could be tied to High Rock specifically.

So, why High Rock? Well, probably firstly because Bethesda had already established that as the pseudo-medieval-Europe province, and as such it’s the closest to what I think can safely be said to be the most generic – and as such familiar – setting for fantasy games. However, they may have also been playing off of familiarity to Daggerfall players as well. The Imperials were basically invented in the Redguard era, and the very simplified influences seem to be the Roman Empire for Colovia and ‘Asia’ (perhaps more specifically China, not that that’s much narrower an influence) for Nibenay. Of course, that’s during Tiber’s time, and going from the brief glimpses of Imperial gear Morrowind concept art provides there seems to have been a subtle shift; mainly, the Imperials seem to love mail armour. Even so, I’d argue their armour remains clearly more ‘eastern’ in influence:

Expanding on that:

And while I’m at it it’s worth remembering that the Romans were a strange bunch as well:

And yes, I did deliberately choose several images with dragon banners. For good measure:

If we need an in-game reason for High Rock playing such a large visual role in Imperial presence in Morrowind, I think Helseth and the ties between Morrowind’s royalty and High Rock are one promising touchstone. It is also possible, however, that the Morrowind legion was largely raised from High Rock from the start, and that the Legion tends to shuffle provincial recruits between random provinces. The Orcish garrison in Gnisis could, as such, present another touchstone, and we might want to give Bretons and to a lesser extent Orcs, Redguards and probably Nords a greater presence in the Legion. Though naturally Colovians should still be well represented, especially among the higher ranks, and some more visible Colovian influence wouldn’t hurt.

In places where one would expect more Nibenese, such as the Imperial Navy garrison in Old Ebonheart and all of the city’s Imperial dignitaries, and the Hlaalu cities bordering on Cyrodiil, specifically Kragenmar and Narsis, one might reasonably expect heavy Nibenese visual influences.

Mind that I’m not interested in generating a bunch of new Imperial assets to add to the game; I just want to clarify what visual direction we should go with for any new assets we plan to include anyway, such as Imperial clothing, Imperial Navy uniforms, new Imperial heads and Old Ebonheart assets.