April 2022 Progress Update

Submitted by Sultan of Rum on

Telvanni Dustlands by Feivelyn — a concept for a future reimagining of the Telvannis district.

Tamriel Rebuilt is a large-scale mod that adds the mainland of the Morrowind province to TES III: Morrowind, according to the vision and lore of the original Bethesda team. At two decades old, it is one of the longest-standing modding projects still active. Work continues on the western areas of the province, but since we release our mod as a series of fully-realized expansions, players can already enjoy content that includes roughly half of the Morrowind mainland and around 360 quests.

We last updated you on our ongoing modding progress in mid-January. Since then, there has been a ton of exciting progress, as we develop not only our next upcoming expansions, the Dominions of Dust and the Embers of Empire, but also the ones beyond those. Some major items were the merging of Embers of Empire reworks into our main in-development .esp plugin, allowing for quest re-implementation to begin, and the completion of the final assets required before Othreleth Woods goes into development.

The new, improved Firewatch now stands guard over the Inner Sea. Landscapes around the city are still works in progress.

As a reminder, TR development is set up as a pipeline of successive departments: loremasters and concept artists dream up the designs needed for our new regions and adventures; asset developers then use these to create new 3D models, textures, sounds and literature. Once the assets needed for a region are done, exterior developers can start crafting the landscapes and cities that make up our most visible new content — this work is parceled into a series of “claims” that can be developed in parallel. Afterwards, interior developers need to fill in all of the buildings, tombs, ruins and caves present in the exterior claims. Finally, quest developers make all of these locales come to life by placing NPCs, writing generic dialogue, and designing and implementing quests. All of these claims are vetted by experienced reviewers before being merged into our in-development plugin files. Mind you, it never works out quite as neatly — we often have to go back to revise several parts of this pipeline — but that’s the ideal we are aiming for.

To see what all of these departments have been up to, let’s start with the concept artists and work our way down. Links will take you to specific claim pages for more information — but beware of spoilers!

Concept art

Concept artists have been especially prolific this time around and have produced some amazing visuals for Telvanni and Redoran architecture, various ships and a ton of armor sets, among other bits and pieces.

Port Telvannis concepts and sketches by Feivelyn for a future reimagining of the Telvannis district. Top: Port Telvannis skyline, middle: Port Telvannis undercity, bottom: Telvanni tower concepts.

Concepts for a Telvanni pocket realm by Feivelyn.

Clothing and armor concepts by Feivelyn. Top left: the Sachem Ithil of House Dres, top right: a robe for Telvanni masters, bottom: Telvanni bonemold armors.

Portraits of King Helseth, Tiber Septim and Queen Barenziah (left to right) by Feivelyn, possibly for in-game use.

Sketchfab concepts of Redoran architecture by Feivelyn, for future work in the Velothis district.

Indoril bonemold armor concepts by Dharma PR.

Dres bonemold armor concepts by Pickles.

An argonian armor and a spear artifact by Pickles.

Concepts for a Breton cog (left) and an Imperial trade ship (right) by Shadowhawk.

Dunmer ship concepts by Gnomey.

Work-in-progress Dwemer tool concepts by Gnomey.

An overpaint of a Llothanis screenshot by Dominik Zdenkovic.

Sketches for new Redoran buildings in the Velothis district by Dominik Zdenkovic.

More sketches for new Redoran buildings by Dominik Zdenkovic.

Various shield concepts by Dominik Zdenkovic.

Work-in-progress concepts for a Dwemer ruin (left) and a proper, non-scavenged Dwemer armor set (right) by c0dacan0n.

Concepts for Dres interior architecture (left) and spider enemies (right) by Ateiggaer.

Explorations of Morrowind portraits by MammaHyena.

Improved concept for Sundered Scar sulfuric willows by Nirvayn.

Malahk orc concept by Xeno.

Steppenwolf’s sketches of Redoran architecture.

LukeW’s sketches of a Morrowind sea creature.

Assets

Along with quests, assets have long been the main roadblock to our mod development. However, as in previous months, our assets department continues to be in overdrive, both thanks to in-house developers and the generous OAAB team.

A compilation of some of the new or reworked artifacts made since mid-January. Assets by Cicero, AnrohaNexus and Rats. Image credit: Cicero.

Artifacts — unique items to give meaningful rewards to heists, dungeon delves and quests:

  • Merged: Savior’s Hide armor set — although vanilla Morrowind only included the cuirass, a full set of Savior’s Hide was seen previously in Battlespire. The added pieces will eventually be found scattered across the Telvannis District (AnrohaNexus, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: Raphalas' Dai-katana, Nandor's Spear and Spear of Shor's Blood — items from the vanilla book “The Armorer’s Challenge,” to be used in the upcoming Old Ebonheart Tournament (Cicero, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Two artifacts for the Firewatch Imperial Cult — the Sword of Taldeus and the Ring of Respite (Cicero, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Cursed Crown of Ushu-Dimmu — an artifact to be seen in the Andothren Fighters Guild questline (Rats, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: Dagger of the Open Soul — an artifact of Nocturnal, to be used in an upcoming Daedric quest (AnrohaNexus, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: A rework of the Ethos Knife, a powerful dagger known from the 36 Lessons of Vivec (AnrohaNexus, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Awaiting review: Sanguine’s Rose and Skull of Corruption — our versions of these artifacts used to be staves in the style of TES IV, but since they appeared as miscellaneous items earlier in the TES series, we decided to redo them in like manner. Also includes the Totem of Kushimmu, the Nerevarine reward for the Kushimmu ashlanders in the upcoming Grey Meadows region (Cicero).
  • Awaiting review: Hammer of Lord Storig of Farrun, a relic from the Four Score War in the second era (AnrohaNexus).
  • In progress: several artifacts that briefly appeared in Battlespire and which will find their way into our upcoming Legion of Shadow questline — the Bow of Heaven's Hail, the Boots of Peace, the Gauntlets of the Poor and the Helm of Light Within (Lamb Shark).

Various recently contributed artifacts and generic weapons by AnrohaNexus.

Equipment — these help differentiate subcultures in Morrowind and provide more choice for player characters:

Two new races from far-off Cathnoquey — the Keptu-Quey (left) and the Chimeri-Quey (right). Assets and image credit: Rats.

Creatures and NPCs — tough assets to create, but ones which have an outsized impact on gameplay:

  • Merged: Two entirely new NPC races — the Keptu-Quey and the Chimeri-Quey — both of whom hail from the eastern archipelago of Cathnoquey. These will be most useful for our sister project Padomaic Isles, but will also be seen in Embers of Empire (Rats, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: Entirely redone vanilla-friendly versions of the many Imperial faces previously added by Province: Cyrodiil, just in time for Embers of Empire (Rats, reviewed by Cicero).
  • In progress: animations for the Xaru, an amphibian creature for the Arnesian Jungle (ThomasRuz, Asylum, Vidi_Aquam).
  • Awaiting review: Female Dwemer specters and Dwemer equipment (hat, hammer and shortsword) from Morrowind concept art (OAAB team, revenorror).

Improved Imperial face additions. Assets and image credit: Rats.

Flora — these go a long way towards making regions unique and reinforcing Morrowind’s desolate atmosphere:

  • Merged: Othreleth Woods trees — finally, the asset that has been holding back exterior work in the Othreleth Woods region is finished (revenorror, reviewed by Chef)!
  • Merged: Several new plants, including new hackle-lo variants, blue kanet flowers — to be used to make the Aanthirin region more unique — and goldreed — to be used in the semi-tropical areas of the Indoril heartlands, once we engage in touching up these regions (OAAB team, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: Saplings for each vanilla tree, including emperor parasols, will make forests more diverse (OAAB team, revenorror, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Additional scathecraw variants for the Sundered Scar region (Chef, reviewed by revenorror).
  • In progress: a pomegranate ingredient and, eventually, tree (as mentioned in the 36 Sermons of Vivec), to be featured in the semi-tropical areas of the Indoril heartlands (revenorror).
  • In progress: Variants of the Spiny Lloramor plant seen in TES III: Tribunal, to be used in the Shipal-Shin region (AnrohaNexus).

Revenorror’s new mushroom trees in their many varieties now define the Othreleth Woods. Landscape work: Chef.

Landscape assets — the backbone of Morrowind’s exteriors. Some very consequential new assets, like Deshaan ground textures and Shipal-Shin cave pieces, have received progress this time around.

  • Merged: Unique road and dried riverbed textures for Aanthirin (which previously used Ascadian Isles textures) to make the region more unique (Cicero, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Major technical improvements to our old terrace cliffs (Wolli, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Major technical improvements to our old medium cliffs (Wolli, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: Rotated textures for Shipal-Shin, to help fit stratified rock textures to the shape of the landscape (Cicero, reviewed by Chef).
  • In progress: substantial work on the Shipal-Shin cavern tileset, which is needed before new interiors can be opened up for the Narsis expansion (Stripes).
  • In progress: substantial work on new ground textures for the Deshaan plains — an item which has long languished, blocking the development of the Deshaan district. Hopefully, these will be finished soon enough to feature a strip of the Deshaan plains in our Narsis expansion (Hemaris).
  • In progress: bespoke meshes for natural cave entrances, allowing for the use of something other than doors or improvised rock piles (Cicero).
  • In progress: Unique rock textures for the Aanthirin region (which currently uses Ascadian Isles textures) to make the area even more distinct and to provide better transitions to the rock textures of the surrounding regions (Cicero).
  • In progress: Sulfur rock pools for the upcoming Sundered Scar rework (c0dacan0n).

Wooden-topped imperial towers and corresponding interiors. Assets and images credit: Wolli.

Architecture — used to craft our cities and interiors, these, too, are fundamental building blocks without which region development is impossible.

  • Merged: Wooden Imperial towers for hastily-made Imperial forts like the one in Nivalis (Wolli, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Large Tribunal Temple buildings for important locales, like Narsis (Kynesifnar, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Various new Hlaalu buildings and square canal corners, for use in Narsis, Hlan Oek and elsewhere in southwestern Morrowind (Wolli, MwGek, Chef, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: A set of palisade gates to replace our old improvised ones (OAAB team, revenorror, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Tall interior pieces to extend the “small” Velothi interior shell set (Hemaris, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Redoran house affiliation pillars, as seen in Morrowind concept art, to spruce up Redoran exteriors (Leyawynn, revenorror, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: Much-improved sail textures and models for Imperial galleons (Rats, reviewed by revenorror).
  • Merged: The same old vanilla Dunmer ship, but this time without oars, which helps with in-world placement (Chef).
  • Awaiting review: Dwemer architecture additions, including modular surface buildings, new round room interiors, a door jamb, staircase and vats. The Velothi mountains and specific reworks of old Dwemer ruins will greatly benefit from these (OAAB team).
  • Awaiting review: Velothi interior connector pieces to make mixing differently-sized interior shell 3D models easier (Hemaris).
  • In progress: Substantial work on the Dres Architecture set. This is the latest in an almost 20-year series of attempts to craft a fitting architecture for House Dres from scratch, but this iteration seems to be going better than any before it. Models for almost all canton variants are complete; work continues on textures and individual buildings (Kynesifnar).
  • In progress: Large door gates for the high walls of Firewatch (Mwgek, revenorror).

Feivelyn’s concept art of House Dres canton cities (above) and work-in-progress 3D models by Kynesifnar (below). The current models form the canton bases, on which many smaller buildings will stand. The textures are placeholders.

Clutter — these items will help provide variety to the hundreds of interiors in our mod:

New metal tongs. Asset and image credit: AlexKnight.

Literature — books allow our loremasters to elaborate on Morrowind’s history and to provide unique rewards for quests:

  • Merged: Ash and Blood: The Imperial Simulacrum in Morrowind — three volumes on how the Simulacrum occurred in Morrowind, written by a veteran of the Arnesian War (Taniquetil, reviewed by Vern, Gnomey and MinerMan60101).
  • Merged: The Lantern Thief, an illusion skill book dealing with a lantern-stealing cryptid believed to reside in Telvannis District (Mark, reviewed by Violet and Jackimoff Wackimoff).
  • Merged: Welcome to the Arena, a faction book for the Kragenmoor Arena, complete with a new book model (Rats, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Waiting for review: Bonewalker Rituals — A Temple spell book on crafting bonewalkers, including beautiful illustrations and a new book model (Rats).
  • In-progress: an addition to Ordolane’s Bestiary (LegitimateJDW, Rats).

New book models for Welcome to the Arena (left) and Bonewalker Rituals (right). Assets and images credit: Rats.

Scripts, dialogue and miscellaneous assets — these breathe life into the world of Morrowind and make complex quests possible:

  • Merged: A large set of very low-end, mid-range to high-end spells from across the series — Arena, Daggerfall, Battlespire, Stormhold, Dawnstar and Shadowkey — that were missing from Morrowind. To be used as quest rewards and unique items for spell vendors (Cicero, reviewed by Chef).
  • Merged: A set of death animations useful for when questers want to control the placement of dead NPCs in detail (Rotouns, reviewed by Cicero).
  • Merged: A cook class for respective NPCs, allowing for profession-specific generic dialogue (Taniquetil, reviewed by Evil Eye).
  • Waiting for review: A set of highly complex vanilla MW scripts for the artifact Wabbajack, which either applies random magic effects to the struck NPC or 'transforms' them into a creature, as in Oblivion (Why).
  • Waiting for review: A script that checks if the version of Tamriel_Data is outdated, to help troubleshoot installation issues (Evil Eye).
  • Waiting for review: Morag Tong Vanilla integration — since we now have a mainland Morag Tong questline, some topics needed to be changed to avoid Vvardenfell-specific dialogue popping up in the wrong place (Dev Shah).
  • Waiting for review: Script improvements to the Old Ebonheart Mages Guild door used in the “When Interiors Don’t Match Their Exteriors” quest (Evil Eye).

Exteriors

Previously released areas — Cicero completed an extensive, if subtle, overhaul of Aanthirin landscapes to reduce rock spam, improve performance, make more effective use of landscape height changes, improve navigability and reduce NPC pathing errors — all to bring Aanthirin up to the best quality standards of vanilla Morrowind exteriors.

A small example of Cicero's fixes to Aanthirin. Left, original landscape work by Scamp and Gnomey; right, the recent rework. Fewer rocks, more navigability and no Ordinators falling through meshes.

Embers of Empire — in a massive milestone, the reworked exteriors of Firewatch, Helnim, Bal Oyra and the island of Althoa finally reached a state where they could be merged into our main plugin by Why. Afterwards, Taniquetil did some additional touch-ups on the cities, including an enlargement of the Firewatch docks (after all, this was the harbor of the great Eastern Fleet during the reign of Uriel V) and Chef has started the process of beautifying the surrounding landscape.

The Inner Sea coast south of Firewatch: left, the early-2003 landscape by Noirgrim in the style of Grazelands (with some later touch-ups). Right, the recent rework by MinerMan60101 in the style of Azura’s Coast.

On that last note, MinerMan60101 took up a hobby project to redo one of the most dated landscapes in TR — the coastline south of Firewatch in the region of Molagreahd. Made in early 2003 when modders were only starting to learn how to build Morrowind exteriors, this area not only made such a monotonous use of Grazeland rocks that it was subsequently nicknamed “chocolate chip hills,” it also hosted just three caves in total. Now, the area is being reworked in the style of Azura's Coast and will have many more dungeons to find, including both Daedric and Dwemer ruins, and a stronghold. The first claim of this overhaul, which addressed the region just south of Firewatch, has already been reviewed by Chef and merged into our main in-development plugin; it will be released together with Embers of Empire. Two other claims, north of Helnim and Firewatch, respectively, are being worked on and may or may not ship together with the expansion, depending on completion.

The town of Menaan, originally by Gnomey, sits in a semi-fertile valley in eastern Roth Roryn. The landscape work, originally by Katze and Nemon, was recently overhauled by Cicero and Rats to bring it up to modern standards.

Dominions of Dust — Exterior work for this expansion has long been almost complete, but a rework of the old-style landscapes of the Roth Roryn region was attempted, starting last year. This work is now paused in order to avoid further disruptions for quest developers, but rest assured that it will resume after the initial release. The last in-progress part of the region overhaul, a relatively lush valley surrounding the Hlaalu town of Menaan, was recently finished by Rats to wonderful results. On the western edge of the Dominions of Dust, Nemon likewise completed most exterior work required before release, including the addition of a source for the Pryai river and connections between mountain paths.

Looking north along the Velothi Mountains and across the famous Dwemer ruin of Hendor-Stardumz. The original exterior work by Nomadic1, Haplo and Nemon was recently overhauled by Nemon.

Hlan Oek — As stated in a prior news post, Hlan Oek will be the centerpiece of a mini-expansion following Dominions of Dust. To prepare, Vern and Chef expanded and reworked the layout of the town to center it on the Temple and Veloth’s Path and to improve the implementation of its waterfront.

Narsis — The Narsis expansion will consist of two major regions — the Coronati Basin (formerly called Thirr Valley) in the north and the Shipal-Shin to its south. Work on the Coronati Basin has been mostly done for a while, but some areas remain to be finished. Chef recently made some substantial touch-ups to the area around Lake Coronati, widening the lake, detailing the lakebed, placing new grotto entrances and shipwrecks, and adding a docks and a Skylamp port to the Redoran fortress of Ald Marak. Gnomey, too, made some fixes to the Hlaalu farms and ranches near the town of Ud Hleryn.

The fearsome Skyrenders terrorize unlucky travelers in the eastern part of the Shipal-Shin. Skyrender assets by Worsas and Sirrah. Image credit and landscape work: Chef.

Things were more active on the Shipal-Shin front. Since last time, two previously complete claims in the east and center of the region were reviewed by Chef and mojo187, then merged together with the previous claims by Phenoix12. Phenoix12 also managed to improve the Thirr waterfall near Narsis, add new roads, dungeons and Skyrender hives throughout the region, and build TR’s first ruin of the Reman Empire on the Purple Imperial Road. Meanwhile, Chef has been hard at work on the claim containing Narsis. The Foreign, Market and St. Veloth’s quarters are now complete and progress is moving up onto the central plaza — the city is turning into a true metropolis. mojo187, likewise, made progress in filling out the last bit of unfinished landscape in the Narsis expansion, just south of the Septim’s Gate Pass to Cyrodiil.

Fort Casidor, built by Phenoix12, is the first ruin in Tamriel Rebuilt to use the Oblivion-inspired Reman ruin architecture models from the Province: Cyrodiil mod. It protected the Imperial border during the Four-Score War in the Second Era.

Othreleth Woods — For the first time in more than a year, new TR exterior claims were opened — the first ones for our distant Othreleth Woods expansion, which will complete the Hlaalu domains on the Morrowind mainland. In truth, the currently opened claims will mostly feature previously mentioned regions, including the southern tip of the Velothi Mountains and the north-western remainder of the Shipal-Shin region. Some of these, like the one containing the city of Kragenmoor, have been in de facto development by Nemon for a long time already, whereas three new recently-claimed ones by Phenoix12, Tombomb47, and Sevenup243 have seen some nice progress already. Five unclaimed exteriors still remain, awaiting new developers that wish to join our team!

The Hlaalu town of Salvelis, situated on the border between the Shipal-Shin and Velothi Mountains regions. Image and landscape work: Phenoix12.

Finally, claims for the Othreleth Woods region proper are about to open very soon, as the mushroom tree assets are now ready. Chef, Phenoix12, and Cicero are already chipping away at test areas which will establish the standard look of the new region.

Interiors

As always, interiors are the busiest department of the mod — more than 86 different interior claims have received some form of implementation progress since mid-January!

Additions to prior areas — Every now and then, our developers revisit our previously released lands to fix minor omissions here and there. One such omission was the lack of an interior for the Daedric ruin of Alumawia in the Alt Orethan region — this has now been fixed by Am’Shak and merged into our development plugin. A new shipwreck for the sea near Telvannis, which will play a role in Old Ebonheart’s upcoming knightly tournament, was made by Cicero and is waiting to be merged. Reviews for these interiors were done by Cicero and Mark. Tyrant also finished the last fixes for a scripted ancestral tomb, which will feature in a future archaeology quest near Kartur. Finally, a major rework of a famous location is in progress by c0dacan0n, which we will reveal in a future post. Stay tuned!

Can you guess what c0dacan0n is working on here?

Embers of Empire — As evident from the exteriors chapter above, all remaining interiors still left in the revamped city of Firewatch and the island of Althoa were finished and merged. For Firewatch, this included Duchess Jandacia’s mighty Ember Keep, the crafty ex-Telvanni court mage’s tower, the wealthy Antoni manor (all by Taniquetil), a wasabi merchant’s house (Jackimoff Wackimoff) and a series of city towers hosting defenses against the Telvanni, Eastern Empire company warehouses and Dustmoth Legion quarters (Vern, Denis418, christixn, PeterFargoth, Taniquetil). On the island of Althoa, the navy’s Icebreaker Keep (Vern, Taniquetil), Molag Bal’s Daedric ruin of Yamandalkal (S’wit) and an ancestral tomb (Fremennik) were merged. Reviews were done by Taniquetil, Vern, Minerman60101, Cicero and Mark.

The Daedric shrine of Ebunammidan by Am’Shak now terrorizes the coast of the Inner Sea.

The parts of Molagreahd being reworked for Embers of Empire have also received a host of interiors to bring the content density up to Bethesda standards. Merged interiors include Mehrunes Dagon’s Daedric shrine of Ebunammidan (Am’Shak) and an ancestral tomb just northwest of Firewatch (Hemaris). The small Dwemer ruin of Yaztaramz (Ataemus) and a small grotto (Fremennik) are reviewed, but not yet merged. Reviews of these interiors were done by Vern and Cicero. Finished, but not yet reviewed are the ancient Chimer stronghold of Mandaran (Fremennik), a shrine to Molag Bal containing a coven of witches (Am’Shak), a small ancestral tomb, a grotto (both by Fremennik) and the wreck of a Dunmer merchant vessel (Aidan1470).

Commander Rojanna’s quarters in Fort Ancylis, which guards the Inner Sea west of Andothren. Interior work by Mark, Rats and Denis418.

Dominions of Dust — Most interiors for this expansion are long done, but we do pick up a few stragglers here and there. One long standing sore thumb was Fort Ancylis (Mark, Rats, Denis418), site of the Imperial Legion questline, which was now finally merged along with a refit for the smugglers’ cave near Andothren (Jackimoff Wackimoff). These interiors were reviewed by Rats and Vern. The largest cave in the Velothi Mountains, home to a major goblin tribe, was also completed (Phenoix12) and is currently under review. Finally, progress has been made on the caverns of Bal Foyen under Andothren (Cicero), where in the second era Almalexia drained the waters of Vivec that had drowned the Kamal invaders from Akavir.

The Hall of Sailors and Shipbuilders in Hlan Oek by Fremennik.

Hlan Oek — With the recent changes to the town, many of the previously complete interiors had to be reworked and others added. Our interior developers, however, are nothing if not industrious, and a large part of this is already done. Namely, the Hall of Sailors and Shipbuilders (Fremennik) is now merged into the corresponding plugin, whereas an upper-class home, a street trader’s house (both by Syzygy), a block of apartments (Fremennik) and a watchtower (Aidan1470) are waiting to be merged. All of these were reviewed by Vern. Not yet reviewed, but otherwise complete, are the well-appointed governor’s mansion (PartiallySane), a wealthy cornerclub (Syzygy), a pawnbroker’s and a slaver’s business (both by Dubba_D), and a caravaner’s home (Tombomb47). A ship under repair is in the works (Anneryl).

Although Ald Iuval is much degraded from its past power, the lord’s tower by christixn and Jackimoff Wackimoff still evokes the once-glory of the Waters March.

Narsis — Interior work remains most active in this expansion area. In the Coronati Basin, many new claims were opened up thanks to Chef’s edits to the exterior, but work also continued on older ones. Merged claims include the main tower of the Redoran holdout of Ald Iuval (christixn, Jackimoff Wackimoff), the armory of its twin fortress of Ald Marak (christixn), and a farm and a shack in the Coronati Basin countryside — two old but good interiors rescued from an earlier iteration of Narsis (agram, Osidian, S’wit). Awaiting to be merged are a grotto (Ataemus), a house on a small corkbulb plantation (laflamenca), an ancestral tomb (Tiefling), a fisherman’s shack (blackbird, S’wit) and a bandit’s tent (Am’Shak). Reviews were done by Jackimoff Wackimoff, Vern, MinerMan60101 and Cicero. The main tower of Ald Marak (Phenoix12), the Temple building in Ald Iuval (Vern, Tyrant, Jackimoff Wackimoff), a new governor’s manor for the village of Idathren (S’wit; transferred from the old Hlan Oek), a velothi tower home to the new Free Scholar’s Tong (Fremennik), a hamum root farm (Fremennik), a kwama mine and a shipwreck (both by christixn) were finished and are awaiting review. Finally, progress was also made on the Dunmer Temple of the Divines in Sadrathim (laflamenca).

Gnomey’s concept for a statue of grandpa Hleryn (left) and its execution in Hleryn Hall (right), which guards the mouth of the Kanit river in Ud Hleryn. Statue by AnrohaNexus, interior and image by Mark.

The biggest concentration of interior progress has been in the wealthy town of Ud Hleryn, which sits astride the mouth of the Kanit river and taxes much of the trade from Kragenmoor. Recently merged claims are the local Tribunal chapel, a tollhouse (both by christixn), halls for the Farmers and Laborer’s (Syzygy) and the Caravaners and Furnishers (PeterFargoth), a reputable cornerclub (S’wit), a seedy sailors’ inn, a Camonna Tong warehouse (both by PeterFargoth), shops for an alchemist (Sliced Bread), a clothier (RandomPal) and an outfitter (Fremennik), a cutter (Fremennik) and a trade ship (Syzygy), a small manor (christixn), homes for a shipmaster and a commoner, a Hlaalu garrison (all three by christixn), and two guard towers (PeterFargoth, christixn). Not yet merged, but already reviewed are the opulent Hleryn Hall (Mark) and a potter’s workshop (revenorror). Reviews were done almost entirely by Mark, with help from Cicero and Jackimoff Wackimoff. A jeweler's shop by Serpentbyte is finished, but not yet reviewed; some progress has also been made on the Fighters Guild (Mark), the Imperial Legion Garrison (Ataemus) and an apartment building (Ragox).

The False Thinking Temple by Cicero is where Buoyant Armigers worship an aspect of Vivec’s Water Face.

Shipal-Shin interiors are waiting on the completion of its cave 3D assets before most claims can open, but those without a need for natural walls are currently being worked on. Two sets of tents for the Red Swarm Militia (roerich and PeterFargoth), and a storage building on the wealthy Adavrin Netch Ranch (PeterFargoth) were reviewed by Mark and Cicero. Additionally, Vivec’s False Thinking Temple at the Thirr river source (Cicero), a Velothi tower (Serpentbyte) and a set of tents (Anneryl), both inhabited by the Red Swarm Militia, and three tanna farm houses (Fremennik, christixn, Nats482 and Jackimoff Wackimoff) are awaiting review. Lastly, some progress was also made on a Velothi tower hosting a Dark Brotherhood cell and the manor house of the Adavrin Netch Ranch (both by PeterFargoth).

Something that should certainly be mentioned are the successful efforts by Jackimoff Wackimoff to change hundreds of re-scaled miscellaneous items strewn throughout our mod back to their standard sizes. The trouble here was that when players pick up rescaled items and place them back down, their sizes would revert to the standard value, possibly breaking immersion. No more!

Quests

Quests, generic dialogue and NPCs are the final item needed prior to an expansion release, but they can also be the most time-consuming, so that progress is difficult to predict — although writing a questline can be relatively easy, it can be exponentially more difficult to implement it in-game, depending on the complexity of the design. Still, many questlines and miscellaneous adventures have received substantial progress in the past months.

An inauspicious beginning to your career in House Hlaalu. Interior by Mark, questline by Jonado.

Embers of Empire — the quest front in Embers of Empire has just recently gotten very exciting. After the reworked exteriors and interiors were merged into our main plugin, Taniquetil managed to stitch broken scripts and dialogue back together, meaning that a plethora of questlines and miscellania are now open for claiming! As for ongoing work:

  • Abby completed the Firewatch Imperial Legion questline, marking the first one to be completed for this expansion. Will you take on the corruption rampant in the Dustmoth Legion, or revel in it?
  • She has now switched over to working on the Fighter’s Guild questline in the same city. The Guild has found the Legion's corruption very beneficial — who would trust a Firewatch legionary to guard their storefront?
  • Taniquetil is in the process of reworking old dialogue to fit the new locales, with most Firewatch dialogue already done.
  • SACarrow is developing the Book of Worms, in which you can help a Telvanni wizard obtain a particularly rare tome on necromancy.
  • Disdamonia is working on Just a Sip, where you can “find” a bottle of rare Incarnadine for a hapless Talos-worshiping Legion officer.
  • Tombomb47 is implementing Double Meaning, where Firewatch’s ex-Telvanni court mage has a message to send to the Telvanni.
  • In the work-in-progress A Tighter Fit by revenorror, two clothiers are playing a game of sabotage.
  • In Lamplit by Am’Shak, help uncover a Tharnite conspiracy in the Helnim Mages Guild.
  • Jonado will be revamping Gummige, perhaps the most crummy of old TR's quests.
  • Wanax intends to do the same for Stranded Shipment, one of two miscellaneous quests remaining in what is now the shrunk-down hamlet of Bal Oyra.

This undead Dunmer has unfortunately been separated from his body. Nothing a little TLC couldn’t fix. Quest by PhDinSorcery.

Dominions of Dust — Most questing effort is directed here and, as a result, volumes have been done in the past few months:

  • Jani finalized the revamped dialogue for the Redoran town of Bodrum (which received a total overhaul last year), marking the last bit of generic dialogue needed in this expansion. It was subsequently merged into our development plugin after a review by Dev Shah.
  • The Morag Tong questline in Andothren was completed by abby and reviewed by Dev Shah. This is the first reviewed questline for Dominions of Dust!
  • The Statue, a miscellaneous quest by Sultan of Rum regarding a conflict between the Tribunal Temple and the Hlaalu town of Omaynis was reviewed by Dev Shah.
  • Similarly, Certificate of Credibility by randonaut, exploring the seedy side of Andothren, was reviewed by — you guessed it — Dev Shah!
  • The Fort Ancylis Imperial Legion questline has now been finished by abby and is awaiting review. In these adventures, an overzealous young legion commander will have you meddle in the notoriously corrupt Hlaalu-Imperial relations.
  • Headless, a miscellaneous quest by PhDinSorcery, starting in the Velothi Mountains, has been completed and is ready for review.
  • Substantial improvements were made to many of the quests in the Baluath vampire clan questline by Dillon241. Help an ancient, but down-on-its luck clan rise to their rightful place again. Only one half of one quest in the series still remains to be implemented!
  • The Orlukh vampire clan questline by Mort, too, is done except for its final quest. The Orlukh are orc ex-legionaries who carry a special hatred of the native Dunmer.
  • For those seeking high-stakes politics and big payouts, Jonado has finished roughly two thirds of the Andothren House Hlaalu questline.
  • The Missing Merchant, a quest developed separately by Envy123, but which still forms part of the House Hlaalu questline, is nearly done.
  • Rats has made progress on the final quests for the Andothren Fighters Guild questline, which centers around a Hlaalu claim to an iron mine in the Armun Ashlands.
  • Why made substantial headway on the Andothren Tribunal Temple questline, of which roughly half is complete. How will you handle the fanatical Vivec-worshiping Orc?
  • Poisoning the Well by Jackimoff Wackimoff, a miscellaneous quest dealing with a hothead ashlander, received some touch-ups and is awaiting review.
  • Taniquetil worked on parts of the first and third quest for the Andothren Mages Guild questline, which deals with terrifying visions from Sheogorath, before passing the claim on to PhDinSorcery.
  • randonaut finished most of the dialogue for the miscellaneous quest Battle of the Bards, taking place in a tavern in Andothren.
  • Cicero planned out designs for future Daedric quests featuring some rarely-seen Daedra in Morrowind: Sanguine and Clavicus Vile.

After the defeat of Dagoth Ur, Alvu Sareleth will enlist the Nerevarine in trying to hold faith in the Tribunal together. Questline by 6plus.

Other

  • Brother Against Brother, a miscellaneous quest by Dillonn241, set in Almas Thirr in the Aanthirin region, has been reviewed by Dev Shah.
  • The Foul Murder questline in Necrom by 6plus, an end-game challenge exploring the future of the Temple faith, has received a boatload of bugfixes prior to review.
  • The long-teased Old Ebonheart Melee tournament received in-depth conceptualization and some early implementation by PhDinSorcery. This will be a high-level challenge rife with cut-throat politicking and suitable rewards.
  • Last but certainly not least, Evil Eye and Rakanishu have implemented a substantial overhaul of TR dialogue to dispense with Vvardenfell-specific responses from the vanilla game and also to move much of the text to Tamriel_Data in order to reduce redundancy with Project Tamriel.

Remember, as completed quests keep piling up, you can help out in a significant manner simply by playtesting the in-progress quests and reporting any issues you find. Everyone can do so, since our development files are completely open. Before starting on this, it’s a good idea to contact us on our Discord server, read our playtesting guidelines, and look through the corresponding quest claim page, including the comments.

If you, furthermore, have the inclination to help make quests, many new claims are awaiting you in Embers of Empire and we’d love to have you on board! Making quests only requires some experience in English writing; implementation can easily be picked up by anyone, with no programming knowledge required. We are also looking for help in every other department of the mod team. Help us create the next exciting expansion to the game we all know and love!

Comments

WOW!

emc's picture

by emc on Sun, 2022-04-10 20:03

Love you heart for crateing so extensive report!