Welcome to another development diary for Tamriel Rebuilt – the massive mod for TES III: Morrowind that adds the mainland of the Morrowind province to the game world, in accordance with the lore and vision of TES III. Currently, roughly half of the mainland area, along with 360 quests, is fully completed and released to players.

We have not been idle over the latter half of Summer and have much to show, as our developers are busy putting together the last bits of our upcoming expansions.

You might notice, however, that this news post is titled “Art and Assets” – our quarterly progress reports grew to such an unwieldy size that we decided to split them into two distinct newsletters. This one will focus on concept art and assets, the first half of our development pipeline, whereas the second one will feature progress on exteriors, interiors and quests, which form the final part of the pipeline. Going forward, we hope to publish the second part of the newsletter next month, then reserve November for a more focused content teaser, and repeat the whole cycle starting in December.

With that past us, let’s see what our artists and modellers have been up to since the middle of July! As always, beware of spoilers when clicking the links and bear in mind that many of the linked pages don’t represent the current or eventual state of the assets.

Concept art

Assets

Architecture

• If TR is to move on to the northwestern Redoran areas in its upcoming exterior work, it will need many new Redoran building shells – the locations and requirements for our Redoran cities will, after all, be much more varied than the ones in vanilla. shivatheo, an aspiring asset developer, has taken up this task with great enthusiasm and has already brought innumerable new designs to life, many of them based on Dominik Zdenković’s sketches.

• Kynesifnar continues to make steady progress on our Dres Architecture set, a must-have before starting exterior work in southwestern Morrowind. Tamriel Rebuilt has had many attempts at creating Dres architecture, ever since 2003, but this most recent one seems to be going really well so far. Kynesifnar is very close to finalizing all exterior buildings, sans textures and decal plates, and has most recently finished the buttresses that tie several tiers of the towering Dres cantons together. This is done in close collaboration with our resident Dres-head, Gnomey.

• For a while now, TR has boasted MwGek’s Hlaalu sewer set, which is planned to be used in many towns throughout Narsis district. However, just recently, MwGek created a newer, even more impressive sewer set for his Balmora Waterworks mod. This version has now been incorporated into Tamriel_Data by Chef and revenorror (Draconic), and has already found use in Narsis and Hlan Oek alongside the older sewer meshes. Relatedly, Kynesifnar and revenorror made some modifications and additions to the older Hlaalu sewer set to allow more versatile use (reviewed by Chef and revenorror). Sewers galore!

• Chef merged and optimized a ton of new Hlaalu building meshes using Wolli’s modular architecture set to make the various towns and cities in Narsis district more unique. Among these are the rotund Othmura Manor, which overlooks the town of the same name on the Thirr river, and a variety of buildings for the caravanserai of Shipal-Sharai, squeezed into a narrow canyon in the Shipal-Shin region (both reviewed by revenorror). Many more are in the works.

• Even more was done for the Hlaalu, including a small addition to the Hlaalu waterfront mesh set, allowing for more versatile docks (reviewed by revenorror), a half-sized Hlaalu floor piece added by Fremennik to allow for more finely tuned interiors (reviewed by Chef) and an open-top staircase for large atriums by Kynesifnar.

• Like the Dres, Redoran and Hlaalu, House Indoril architecture also deserves love, especially since the Mournhold architecture set released with TES III: Tribunal is rather limiting in its use cases. Our long-time contributor MwGek has already been filling some of the gaps in the original set, but now a new asset developer, EndoranWest, has joined the fray. Their first contribution is a bespoke interior tile mesh with a door in the corner, to replace the many “kitbashed” variants of this setup in our mod (reviewed by Aleister). Moving on, EndoranWest is working on a specialized Indoril dock set, which will allow even more de-kitbashing, and will immediately find use in our new iteration of the island of Gorne, part of the upcoming Sundered Scar overhaul.

• Finally, Hemaris finished the large city gates for Firewatch and Helnim, originally made by Mwgek, this being one of the last pieces of architecture still needed for Embers of Empire.

Landscape assets

• Most effort in this category went into finalizing the landscape assets needed for our upcoming Sundered Scar overhaul, which Cicero wanted to start working on as soon as possible. The most crucial of these are the Sundered Scar rock retextures recently implemented by Cicero, MinerMan60101 and Aleister (reviewed by Cicero), and the sulfur rock pools and containers – the identifying assets of the region, inspired by the cut (or half-implemented, depending on who you ask) vanilla Great Scathes region. These latter two were made by c0dacan0n, Cicero and revenorror, with some meshes donated by OAAB (reviewed by Aleister) Thanks to these assets, Cicero and Chef are already far along in creating the first claims of this region overhaul.

• The same was done on the Sundered Scar flora front: a new Pink Tube Fungus was recently made by Aleister, to be placed as accent around the sulfur pools, as were additional variants of the Sweet Barrel cacti (both reviewed by Cicero). Merged, too, were a set of repurposed palm trees by Cicero and Aleister, which will serve as sparse coastal flora in the tortured region (reviewed by revenorror). Finally, AnrohaNexus has recently pivoted to plants and is implementing the tender White Meadowsweet, a staple of Indoril gardens that may find its way into the Sundered Scar, too.

• For the Shipal-Shin region, the most crucial item remains the bespoke sandstone cavern tileset, one of the few cave tilesets in TR that will receive entirely new models, not just retextures of vanilla pieces. Thankfully, S’wit (DarkKnightComes) has recently gotten back in the flow with this asset and now the modular room and passageway pieces are nearly done; only large prefabricated caverns still remain. Meanwhile, to help liven up the above-ground landscape, Aleister and AnrohaNexus recently added more variants of the Spiny Lloramor cactus, originally from TES III: Tribunal (reviewed by Chef).

• In the Velothi Mountains, revenorror has been chipping away at a variety of mountain flowers, to make the wooded valleys of the region more unique.

• revenorror is also tweaking and finalizing the flora base of the Othreleth Woods region. As part of this, he is adding more variants of the widely used, mid-sized ovary trees. Furthermore, he recently increased the canopy size of the main Othreleth Woods mushrooms, allowing for more shade in the forest. In the works by S’wit is also the carnivorous fungus, a creepy staple of Othreleth Woods caves.

• Finally, some older flora assets received much-needed improvements: Kusy and revenorror replaced our ancient Hamum Root model with a newly improved version (reviewed by Aleister) – no shade on its original creator, Asylum, who made the model way back in 2004 and is still around as one of the longest-active TR contributors. Furthermore, Brannon the Ilk, a relatively new asset developer, greatly optimized our Bamboo models (reviewed by revenorror).

Furniture and clutter

• Perhaps the item with the biggest impact in this category was the Dunmer middle class furniture rework by S’wit, which was finally reviewed by Cicero – the old models by Vegor and Sirrah hailed from a bygone era and suffered from some style inconsistencies, especially when compared to vanilla Dunmer furniture. After the asset was finalized, Mark and other interior reviewers embarked on a major effort to readjust all middle-class interiors in TR to accommodate the new models.

• Many new and crucial clutter pieces for our upcoming content were completed. joanasc recently modeled a much-requested telescope for members of the Astrologists Guild and for other science-y folks, some of whom will feature in Embers of Empire and further expansions (reviewed by revenorror). While implementing the Andothren Mages Guild questline, Taniquetil saw the need for better models for the rare crystals dropped by elemental daedra monarchs, which she completed with the help of Cicero (reviewed by Chef). Next, revenorror created an asset for ground drumpear seeds, a common product of Shipal-Shin plantations (reviewed by Aleister). Vern then added pre-made containers full of sapphires for the same region (reviewed by Chef) – sapphire is the main mining product in the Shipal-Shin. Lastly, Mark, Vern and revenorror created some dunmer-style market shelving to help furnish the innumerable merchant interiors in the Narsis district.

• A couple of highly artistic pieces of fabric were added to the mod. Hemaris used an AI algorithm to generate a shalk image, which was then transplanted to a small rug. It is amazing how much it looks like the rug always belonged in the vanilla game! Second, MammaHyena made a tapestry in the vibrant style of the Altmer, inspired by c0dacan0n’s Summerset conceptualizing (both reviewed by revenorror). This one will soon replace the rather austere tapestries that currently hang in Old Ebonheart’s Summerset Embassy.

• revenorror has been on a mission to increase the amount of generally useful clutter items available to interior developers. Recently, he made a set of golden candlesticks and recolored glass lanterns (reviewed by Aleister) and has ported over a ton of useful clutter assets donated by the OAAB team, also including some furniture, interior pieces and a couple of weapons. In the same category is also a candle snuffer by EndoranWest for those candle-heavy interiors.

• Many new models were made to replace common cases where assets were used in an unintended and non-optimal fashion (a.k.a. “kitbashing”). For example, revenorror made a series of variant pieces for vanilla bread, given that the supposedly less common Deshaan bread, which already featured similar variants, was becoming too widely used in interiors due to its versatility (reviewed by Chef). Vidi_Aquam, in a similar fashion, added long variants of rich Dunmer tables to replace numerous uses of repeated tables in the large dining halls found throughout the opulent Narsis district (reviewed by revenorror). In another example, Hemaris got fed up with the many improvised block-and-tackle rigging sets found throughout our mod and made a dedicated, modular asset for this purpose (reviewed by revenorror). The exact same thing prompted him to create a dedicated dartboard, which has already found its way into many taverns in TR (reviewed by Chef).

• A variety of clutter from the Padomaic Isles was finalized and merged, and will soon be present in small amounts around eastern Morrowind, where ever there are traders that ply the far Padomaic. This includes urns for the Chimery-Quey, who sail the waters around the archipelago of Cathnoquey and another set from the archipelago of Yneslea, both by Kynesifnar and reviewed by Cicero. Still pending review is a full set of wooden cutlery from Yneslea, and various palm leaf scrolls – a standard medium for enchanted magic scrolls throughout the Padomaic isles – both by Brannon the Ilk.

Equipment

• VenuSprout did a marvelous job modeling and texturing the new Hlaalu Canyon Watch bonemold armor based on Pickles’ concept art (reviewed by Cicero). This will feature in the Roth Roryn and Shipal-Shin regions. In parallel, Vidi_Aquam is currently working on the Hlaalu River Watch armor, which will be the main uniform of Hlaalu guards on the river Thirr, whereas Lamb Shark (Sandaron) has made substantial progress on the Kragen armor, to be used around Kragenmoor.

• c0dacan0n is making a quirky wizard robe set complete with a pointed hat and star decorations – clearly some Breton influences. This will come in very handy in the notoriously robe-poor Mages Guild.

• On the artifact front, Lamb Shark and Cicero finished several new and beautiful artifacts for the upcoming Legion of Shadow questline, based on named items from An Elder Scrolls Adventure: Battlespire. Similarly, AnrohaNexus and Cicero created Orlukh’s Cleaver – a unique iron battleaxe forged by a master smith – as a reward for the Orlukh vampire questline (reviewed by revenorror).

• More weapons made by AnrohaNexus, including an ebony sabre, club, crossbow, bolt and throwing knife and a set of unique new dreugh weapons, to be sold by a speciality merchant in Narsis, were recently reviewed and merged by revenorror and Cicero. Cicero, furthermore, added a gold rapier based on the adamantium rapier model from OAAB (reviewed by revenorror).

• Finally, Brannon the Ilk has been revamping and making additions to the Quey bronze weapons set made originally by Asylum, based on new art by Pickles.

Creatures and NPCs

• Creature and NPC progress has been slower than usual these past few months. Still, some items have received work. Most significantly, VenuSprout finished up the necessary textures for the Malahk Orcs, and the asset was made ready for review by Why. These are far larger and more brutish cousins to your usual orcs, found natively in the Velothi Mountains, inspired by TES III: Morrowind concept art. Be ready to meet these brutes in a hidden spot in the Dominions of Dust!

• Also finished now is the Sturgeon fish from OAAB, which was ported over by Aleister and revenorror, who fixed some animation issues in the process. These will soon be featured in the seas around Morrowind.

• Still in development is Asylum’s Octonetch (placeholder name), a fearsome predator for the Othreleth Woods, for which revenorror recently reworked the animation skeleton and UV maps.

Literature

• A new contributor, letshavecake, wrote a slightly risque religious text on the pitfalls of faith called the Dualities of ALMSIVI Worship. It is currently awaiting review from one of our vanilla and TR lore experts.

• Just starting development is The Canyon Echo – a newspaper for Narsis that will be responsive to the player’s actions in quests, in a similar vein to the Ebonheart Bellman already in TR or the Black Horse Courier in TES IV: Oblivion. For now, Khazar has written some news pieces and Lucevar has conceptualized a few more.

• Finally, revenorror reviewed the placeholder city and district guides that Mark made a while ago. As the name says, these are placeholders for interior makers to use and will still need to be filled with actual maps and guides.

Scripts

• Why, one of our most talented MWscript wizards, has recently gone on a bit of scripting spree. Most importantly for the upcoming Dominions of Dust, he finished the scripts for the Hlaalu Company Scrip, which is what the hapless Hlaalu miners are now paid in. The player will be able to use the scrip to purchase low-level items at select Hlaalu Company stores. Fully immersive labor exploitation!

• Another finished item is Why’s adorable pack guar companion, now purchasable from the Old Ebonheart stables (reviewed by Cicero). This one is similar to the pack rat from TES III: Tribunal, so it was odd that TR never provided similar companions previously.

• Many other scripts are still pending review. Why got ambitious regarding the Battlespire-style daedric wards that are to be present in select locations in Embers of Empire and added subtle animation and lighting effects to them. Likewise, he tweaked our hoom creatures, a symbol of the Velothis, to be significantly less murderous. Finally, Why also made an attempt at standardizing the various scripts used for trespassing detection in TR. Since these scripts are essentially workarounds for vanilla’s broken sneak system, and will most likely conflict with any mod that tries to fix said system, there is still no consensus on how to go about trespassing in TR.

Fixes

• Less visible, but extremely valuable, is the near-constant stream of fixes to already-implemented objects in Tamriel_Data by many of our main asset contributors. For example, Evil Eye from TR and Rakanishu from Project Tamriel have done tons of very tedious work trying to make the Tamriel_Data repository, the items within, and their uses within TR and Project Tamriel more consistent and organized. Much of it involves working with dialogue, large parts of which have been moved over to Tamriel_Data in order to reduce duplication and improve cohesion between projects.

• Aside from lots of more visible asset and reviewing work, revenorror has also been making innumerable technical improvements to our assets in the background. Among many other items, he has by now fixed and standardized most of our face meshes and textures, which used to be a very mixed bag, and are continuously tweaking often-used clutter meshes to improve performance in TR cities.

• Hemaris, too, has been stealthily updating various pieces of architecture and furniture, such as retexturing a fireplace tool stand to use metal instead of wooden textures or fixing various geometry issues in the bespoke Redoran building meshes in Ald Iuval and Ald Marak.

• Chef is the one usually taking care of merging new assets to Tamriel_Data, but has also been fixing various outstanding bugs in earlier assets.

• Aleister recently fixed some animation issues in our old Vermai creature by Worsas.

• Finally, freefred1122, a new asset contributor, fixed a nasty collision issue with a planter mesh (reviewed by revenorror).

This is it for art and assets in these past two months – not a bad haul by any stretch! Next month, we will dive into the progress in quests, interiors and exteriors, and let me tell you, there will be a lot to cover! Our next expansions are now truly in the final stages of development. As always – if you want to come chat with us or follow our progress more closely, check out our Discord server, where we develop the mod in the open. And if you wish to help us bring mainland Morrowind to life faster, please come join us as a developer – we are always looking out for volunteers of all stripes. No prior modding experience needed!

To leave you off, take a look below at this wonderful tongue-in-cheek collage made by Shadowhawk, depicting many of the current Tamriel Rebuilt developers with their various quirks. Don’t you just wish you were one of them? 😉