Tamriel Rebuilt is a massive community mod for TES III: Morrowind that adds the mainland of the Morrowind province to the game world (Bethesda only included the island of Vvardenfell in the original game). The mod is released as a series of expansions that seamlessly integrate with the original game, each adding a new area of the mainland fully developed with interior locations, NPCs, dialogue, and quests. Players can already download and play an area twice the size of the original game and containing north of 600 quests – substantially more than the original game and its expansions combined.

This newsletter tallies our progress on the implementation of the Morrowind game world over this past year, since the last similar newsletter in July 2023.

2023 and 2024 have been busy years, two of many good ones we’ve had in this decade. The organization appears strong and the pool of volunteers shows no signs of drying up, despite the considerable age of the game. This is aided by our ever-improving documentation and the recent advancements in tooling for TES III modmakers, which makes Morrowind modmaking, already famously easy to pick up, more convenient than ever.

The scale of what Tamriel Rebuilt is attempting to do is demonstrated by the more than 700 “claims” that received updates since the last tally in July 2023 – claims being our formal divisions of work, each intended to be tackled by a single “claimant.” If you keep in mind that each claim typically requires a couple to dozens of hours of volunteer work for the developer responsible – or, in some cases, hundreds – you can start to gain an appreciation of how much it takes to make the Morrowind mainland come to life.

Remember, development of new areas for Tamriel Rebuilt first starts with planning discussions, often informed by concept art. Before implementation can begin, a series of unique 3D and texture assets need to be produced by our asset developers – progress on these stages of development is not covered in this newsletter, but was last covered in detail in December. After an asset palette is ready, exterior level designers can start to carve out and detail a new region of the overworld. Once that work is complete, our cadre of interior level designers descends upon the area to fill in the dozens if not hundreds of interior locations needed for each overland region. Only once the making of interiors has largely wound down, can quest developers add NPCs, generic dialogue, and, most importantly, the dozens to hundreds of quests that each expansion needs. All of these stages are painstakingly reviewed by our teams of experienced reviewers, ensuring a constantly-improving level of consistency, quality, and vanilla-friendliness across the mod.

Before we dive into the progress, beware that the links provided below will direct you to our internal claims browser, which will contain spoilers to upcoming areas and quests – so, click on these at your own risk. Also, keep in mind that the information on many these pages may be outdated and not reflective of our current planning or what the final product will look like.

Now, let’s take a look at what has been accomplished this past year, going in the order of the different expansions that we are working on. (For an introduction to the expansions mentioned, refer to the April newsletter.)

First, we will briefly cover the remainder of the progress towards our Andaram expansion, namely the period from July 2023 til the expansion’s release last October. As a reminder, this expansion added a slice of new lands around Lake Andaram to the south of the Aanthirin region, surrounding the town of Hlan Oek, and wholly remade the temple stronghold of Almas Thirr, expanding it with new locations, factions, and questlines.

Exteriors

Exterior work in the remaining months since July 2023 focused mainly on a substantial landscape overhaul of the Aanthirin region by Cicero (with help from chef), replacing all vanilla land and rock textures with bespoke variants made for the region and overall making much better use of the landscape mesh, improving performance, looks, vanilla-parity, and navigability. Such a far-reaching change took a lot of QA-ing, which was done by mothpot and a whole host of other developers both before and after the release of the expansion.

Other exterior work included Silvone’s full exterior redo of Paruddma’s Maw, the project’s first Dreugh citadel, using our many new purpose-made assets (reviewed by Chef), and a set of exterior edits to a part of the Sacred East region by Cicero and Lestet (reviewed by mojo187) needed for our long-in-the-making Foul Murder questline.

Interiors

While most interiors for Andaram had been merged already prior to last July, many stragglers were cleared out in the remaining months:

• The massive Dreugh citadel Paruddma’s Maw, the centerpiece dungeon in the release, was completed by Silvone (reviewed by aveno). The dungeon uses a whole new set of architecture and clutter designed for dreugh citadels, which we will be making much more use of (see in other sections below).

• In the temple stronghold of Almas Thirr, the Majordomo’s Sanctum by Khazar (reviewed by Peter) and the manor of the Teloth family by Shadowhawk_the19th (reviewed by aveno) were merged.

• Many remaining interior additions to Aanthirin were merged in order to improve the region’s density, such as the stronghold of Hlorandus by Silvone, a cave by Snailsting (both reviewed by Denis418), an overhauled ancestral tomb by Ragox, (reviewed by aveno) and a cutter ship needed for an Old Ebonheart quest by Fremennik and Taniquetil (reviewed by Jackimoff Wackimoff and aveno).

• Two of our old lighthouses were refit to make use of new lighthouse meshes by Mwgek: the Teyn Lighthouse and the Bal Oyra Lighthouse, both made by Paramelia and reviewed by Denis418.

• Complementing the exterior edits mentioned earlier in this section, two new interiors had to be made for the Foul Murder questline, replacing the earlier Drakehold fort ruin: a Velothi tower by aveno (reviewed by Denis418) and an ashlander camp by Cicero (reviewed by aveno).

• To make use of a windfall of new, diverse ship meshes, many ships throughout the mod were remade: five galleons by Silvone [1, 2], Aidan1470, Osidian, and CdoubleOK, five Imperial cutter ships by Taniquetil, two western tradeships by CdoubleOK and Taniquetil, and a nord tradeship by aveno (reviews by aveno, Denis418, Taniquetil, jackimoff wackimoff, and MinerMan60101).

Quests

The bulk of the last months were spent finishing and reviewing the expansion’s more than 100 quests and related claims. For the city of Almas Thirr, these included:

• Addition of NPCs and a refit of general dialogue for the entire city by pralec and Ronik (reviewed by Revane).
• The new Mages Guild questline [1, 2] by Taniquetil and Ricketybob (reviewed by Revane and FlinSunset).
• An update to the Tribunal Temple questline by FlinSunset (originally made by Rats and Mort; reviewed by pralec).
• A Matter of Record – a miscellaneous quest – by Donnerino and FlinSunset (reviewed by Revane).
• Tainted Waters – a miscellaneous quest – by Khazar (reviewed by Revane).
• Friends with Rats – a miscellaneous quest – by mr.potato (reviewed by Revane).
• Proud to be Buoyant – a miscellaneous quest – by Ronik (reviewed by pralec).

In the wider countryside added in Andaram, two miscellaneous quests were completed:

• The Dead Pilgrim by LogansGun (reviewed by pralec).
• The Secret Master by Ricketybob (reviewed by FlinSunset).

The reason why the expansion had such a large quest count, however, was the many additions made to the previously released mainland, including:

• The Foul Murder Questline by 6plus – an epilogue to the Morrowind main quest, set in Necrom – was finally reviewed and merged by Revane. Yet it remains inaccessible to most players, locked behind a console command, as we still lack a vital unique 3D asset. Being merged into our main plugin, at least the quest is safe from bitrotting and Kinezis has been doing good work on the needed asset.
• A short set of Redoran Bounties in Uman by Taniquetil, giving Redoran lovers their first little Tamriel Rebuilt content (reviewed by pralec).
• When Love Crosses Rivers, a miscellaneous quest in Aanthirin by randonaut and FlinSunset (reviewed by Revane).
• Wine Contract for Bol Salvani, a Hlaalu quest in Gol Mok by LogansGun (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• His Eyes are on You, an Imperial Legion quest near Roa Dyr by Khazar, (reviewed by Revane).
• The Book of Worms by PoasterToaster, a House Telvanni quest in Tel Rivus on the isle of Althoa (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Can’t Buy a Kill by KnobelKnight, a miscellaneous quest in Akamora (reviewed by FlinSunset)
• Ring of Euphoria by Mark, a miscellaneous quest in Teyn (reviewed by Dev Shah, FlinSunset, Why).
• A further extension to the Baluath Vampire questline by FlinSunset (originally made by Dillon241; reviewed by pralec).
• More than a hundred new entries to the latest rumors dialogue topic in the Aanthirin, Roth Roryn, and Armun Ashlands regions by Donnerino and Revane (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• A substantial tweak to Freedom for a Fiend, an Old Ebonheart quest, by Mortimer, its original creator (reviewed by FlinSunset).

Finally, viol made a substantial effort to provide integrations between Vvardenfell content and the mainland, in order to provide roleplaying reasons to visit the latter. All of it was done with a very light touch and much care for mod compatibility:

• Invitation to Andothren, where Tholer Andas invites a high-level Hlaalu player in Rethan Manor to come work for him (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Tenyeminwe’s message to Banvira Auctoria, a member of the Firewatch Mages Guild (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Letter to Bribanne Erien, where Ajira wants you to deliver a message to Old Ebonheart (reviewed by Revane).
• Tongue-Toad’s Reward, where Tongue-Toad asks you to warn his colleague in Teyn (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Additional dialogue for Caius Cosades, directing you to Blades trainers on the mainland (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Additional dialogue for Vodunius Nuccius, hinting that he may need your help on the mainland (reviewed by pralec).

What cannot be understated also is the massive effort by our whole team to bughunt the mod prior to and after the release of Andaram. This was aided by a switch in our development pipeline wherein all developers, not just seniors, are able to contribute bugfixes, and help from Magamo in making the bugfix process more user-friendly on the website side. Worth special mention in bugfixing are FlinSunset, Revane, Ronik, MinerMan60101, CdoubleOK, and Snailsting, among others.

Wait, wait… wasn’t Grasping Fortune supposed to be the next expansion in the pipeline? Uh, well, it was, but it so happened that our sister project Province: Cyrodiil, over at the Project Tamriel team, is drawing very close to releasing its massive first expansion, Abecean Shores. (Their island of Stirk alpha was released years ago, but never fully completed.) Given that Project Tamriel relies on new textures and assets from the in-development Tamriel_Data asset repository, the repository needs to be updated simultaneously and so does Tamriel Rebuilt. We have already made substantial additions to our main in-development file, so this update will come with enough content that it may as well be termed a mini-expansion.

Abecean Shores itself is a hugely exciting release that centers on the metropolis of Anvil in western Cyrodiil, but also includes a ton of land in western Colovia and the lovingly detailed Abecean Sea. It adheres to the same quality and lore standards as Tamriel Rebuilt; indeed, many of our developers are helping to get the mod released. Province Cyrodiil’s landscape is also placed in the same worldspace as Tamriel Rebuilt and intended to be entirely compatible and complementary to it (to the point of there being crossover quests, should you have both it and Tamriel Rebuilt installed). We invite you to check out Project Tamriel’s recent website update on Abecean Shores and much more.

As for Tamriel Rebuilt, Firemoth Rekindled will be a smaller-scale update focused on finally bringing you our remade vision of Siege at Firemoth, the Bethesda official mod from 2002. The original mod was a rather rushed, unpolished showcase for the possibilities of the TES Construction Set. Given that its landscape conflicted with Tamriel Rebuilt, we had to add a landscape patch in any case. So, we decided to take advantage of that to polish up the island’s level and quest design, integrate it properly into the province, and extend it with the addition of an Imperial Legion stronghold questline.

This revamp started already in 2020, and most work has already been done in previous years: a total re-imagining of the archipelago’s exterior and all of its interiors. But since July 2023, we have finished everything else needed for it:

• Chef made a further revamp of the Firemoth landscape, originally recreated by Selengor in 2020, bringing back the ashlands textures (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• A wrecked Imperial galleon interior by obie dwyer (reviewed by Denis418).
• The Firemoth Lighthouse interior, using new lighthouse meshes from Mwgek, by Toma400 (reviewed by Denis418).
• A remake of Basan-Dur, a small Dwemer ruin in the Roth Roryn region, by Evil Eye. This was needed for the Firemoth questline (reviewed by Denis418).
• Evil Eye meticulously refit the original Siege at Firemoth quest with substantial improvements over the Bethesda version (reviewed by Revane).
• The brand-new Firemoth Rekindled questline, also by Evil Eye, allows an Imperial Legion player to rebuild the fort after Grurn’s defeat and serve as its commandant (reviewed by Ronik).

But in addition to Firemoth, as always, we have made innumerable tweaks across the mainland to fix issues and provide new quests and locations. For one, a series of miscellaneous quests for vampires have been added throughout the mainland, similar to those present in vanilla Morrowind:

• Scrolls of Immobilizing Domination by Ronik, a task given by Maniel Sylbenitte in the Old Ebonheart Mages Guild (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Power through Destruction by FlinSunset, where you help a caravan guard in the Grey Lodge north of Arvud to make sense of a vampire encounter (reviewed by Ronik).
• Vrashammu’s Mind Control by KnobelKnight, where a Baluath vampire asks for your help in stealing magical secrets (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• A Sample of Blood by Donnerino, where a Firewatch alchemist asks a vampire player to donate their blood (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Somewhat related, Aveno fixed up the ancient (in terms of when it was developed) and currently below-standard Zabamallit cave in Roth Roryn for use in a later vampire quest coming with Grasping Fortune (reviewed by Osidian).

When we created the dreugh citadel Paruddma’s Maw in last year’s Andaram, we always intended to add similar citadels to waters across the rest of Morrowind. The first part of this is now in progress: the addition of several citadels and dreugh grottos to northeastern Morrowind, on the seabed surrounding 2022’s Embers of Empire expansion, as well as some other tweaks to the region:

• Silvone, now an absolute veteran of seafloor level design thanks to his voluminous work on Province: Cyrodiil’s Abecean Shores, took it upon himself to make all needed exterior changes, including a full overhaul of Nolubal bay to the north of Firewatch (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• Chef replaced Azura’s Coast textures on the island of Althoa and other surrounding isles with new, bespoke textures for the region created by him and Cicero (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• Cream Sandwich finished the small Url Barrow, adding a proper Nordic barrow interior for Urlis Rock, a small isle northeast of Althoa that holds the burial of an ancient Nord captain (reviewed by Cicero).
• CdoubleOK finalized the Wraithspire, a medium-sized dreugh hive between Althoa and Vounoura (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• Aveno did a refit of the pre-existing Seradan Grotto, as it is now overrun by dreugh from the nearby Wraithspire (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• Silvone very recently finished The Whispers, a sprawling dreugh hive in Nolubal Bay with a particularly grim reputation among sailors (pending review).
• CdoubleOK made the new Diru Grotto in Nolubal Bay, taken over by dreugh from The Whispers (reviewed by Tim Stonks).
• MinerMan60101 made short work of Crystal Scissure, a citadel on the shoulder of an underwater volcano in the deepest part of the eastern Inner Sea. Now awaiting review.

Several additions were made to the city of Firewatch, specifically parts that were cut from Embers of Empire due to lack of time, mostly to do with the sewers and the College:

• Firewatch sewers, an extensive interior claim recently finished up by aveno based on earlier work by Exovian (reviewed by Tim Stonks).
• The Great River by jimmynutsmd, a quest where you have to help a noble scion pass his classes at the College of Firewatch (reviewed by Ronik).
• Just Like the Real Thing, by jimmynutsmd, where you help an archaeology professor in the College deal with their gambling problem (reviewed by Ronik).
• Running Into Trouble, a rework of an older quest where you are asked to track down escaped slaves. It received some recent progress by jimmynutsmd and is being finalized by Ronik.
• Sewers NPCs and dialogue is being added by Taniquetil.

The city of Andothren from 2022’s Dominions of Dust received some more love with the replacement of the odd Vasni manor with a new Dunmerized chapel to one of the Nine Divines (the required architecture piece didn’t yet exist when Andothren was first planned) as well as some quest tweaks:

• The Dunmer chapel of Mara was made by Taniquetil and aveno (reviewed by CdoubleOK).
• NPCs and unique dialogue for the chapel were added by kari.nu (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• FlinSunset implemented a light refit of the Andothren Thieves Guild questline in order to make it work with our new plans for Morrowind’s criminal factions (reviewed by Ronik).
• A Reluctant Execution, a special duty for the Andothren Morag Tong, was developed by Khazar (reviewed by Blueshift).

The city of Old Ebonheart, first released in the eponymous expansion in 2018, finally had one of its entirely too many bakeries replaced by a proper editorial office for the Ebonheart Bellman newspaper, and will hopefully receive some new questlines:

• Editorial office for the Ebonheart Bellman by LilianaUnfolded. This is where the premier Imperial newspaper of Morrowind is printed, copies of which you can already find all over the city and further afield (reviewed by Taniquetil).
• NPCs and dialogue for the editorial office were added by Taniquetil (reviewed by Ronik).
• An extension to the Old Ebonheart East Empire Company questline by Marhaus is close to completion, adding much more meat to a 2018 questline that was made in something of a rush.
• Old Ebonheart melee tournament, a complex questline intertwined in high politics, long in the making by Marhaus, has seen a lot more progress this last year, but still needs finishing.

Clinging to a picturesque pass through the mountainous border between the Aanthirin and Armun Ashlands regions used to be the Aren Manor, which never had any substantial quest content added to it. In order to improve the landscape in the area and provide some more content, the manor was replaced with the Chimeri stronghold of Barendeth, where a battle between Ordinators and vampires is currently raging:

• pralec made the requisite changes to the exterior worldspace, (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• Aveno created the interior of the stronghold (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• FlinSunset then NPCed the place and wrote its dialogue (reviewed by Mortimer).
• LogansGun created Cure Dredase Devani, a quest to aid Ordinators in their attack on the stronghold (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• LogansGun also made the Barendreth Protection quest for vampire characters who wish to destroy the Ordinators instead (reviewed by FlinSunset).

Another targeted tweak was the removal of the Ruinous Crypt, an enigmatic Indoril ruin added to Sunad Mora, northeastern Telvannis, made sometime prior to 2006. As this was a place where Indoril influence never reached, it had to go, and was replaced with a new daedric ruin, Adadpaliki:

• MinerMan60101 handled the exterior worldspace changes (reviewed by Chef).
• aveno then created the interior for Adadpaliki, a Molag Bal shrine (reviewed by MinerMan60101).
• MinerMan60101 handled Mansutarmus, a small cave occupied by a conjurer. It was added in place of another prior entrance to Ruinous Crypt (reviewed by aveno).

We also finished up the remainder of our stopgap quests for old Telvannis, meant to tide players over until the Grand Telvannis Redo coming in many years. Parts of this – additional quests for some mainland Telvanni masters – were merged already for Andaram, but the rest are now done, too, all by Ronik:

• Master Vaerin’s Telvanni questline in Alt Bosara, where you help the master put his nearby rivals in place (reviewed by Mortimer).
• Mistress Rathra’s Telvanni questline of Tel Ouada, focusing on sabre-rattling with Rathra’s nemesis, Master Mithras of Ranyon-Ruhn (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Unseating Rilvin Dral, the ultimate confrontation with the Archmagister of House Telvanni (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Ranyon-Ruhn Temple questline refit and finalization, overhauling its existing quests to modern standards and adding a few more, bringing to a close the plot thread that had been left hanging for 16 years (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Somewhat related, MinerMan60101 implemented Cameron2023’s and Feivelyn’s new water strider model throughout Telvannis, replacing the goofy river strider models of yore.

Continuing on from Andaram’s addition of several lightweight vanilla quest hooks to direct players to the mainland, even more will be added with Firemoth Rekindled:

• Gathering Dust Beetle Shells by viol, where Synnolian Tunifus at the Imperial Chapel in Ebonheart asks you to collect ingredients from the mainland (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Cephalopod Shell Fragments by Ronik, an early game hook for House Telvanni, gathering Telvanni Isles ingredients for Arara Uvulas (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Return the Amulet of Unity by mr.potato, allowing you to return some goods stolen in the course of the House Telvanni questline to Master Vaerin (reviewed by Ronik).
• Unseating Rilvin Dral by Ronik, adding dialogue hinting at the existence of Archmagister Dral on the mainland after you’ve defeated Gothren in the vanilla House Telvanni questline (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Yakin Bael’s delivery to Bahrammu by viol, directing you from Vos to the island of Althoa (reviewed by FlinSunset).

As for other, miscellaneous additions:

• The Roth Roryn miscellaneous quest Cat-Catchers on the Road was redone and relocated by KnobelKnight in order to make it less annoying (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Ronik finished viol’s work on Ceremonial bonewalker processions in Necrom, which is still awaiting review. This flavor addition was in limbo due to an OpenMW bug with animations, but since that is now fixed in the most recent OpenMW development versions (thanks, OpenMW team!), we can proceed.
• Cicero added a whole series of small fun interactions and easter eggs throughout the manland, in a similar fashion to those found in vanilla Morrowind (reviewed by Ronik).
• Snailsting remade the interior of Issurnawia Mine in the Roth Roryn region, allowing us to deprecate some old rock assets that we didn’t want to see in the mod anymore (reviewed by MinerMan60101).

It should again be stressed that these formal claims listed above are but one (albeit, largest) phase of development. Much additional work is done by our tireless bugtesters and -fixers, who seem to have squashed a few more every time I refresh our bugtracker – work that I simply don’t have the capacity to cover in detail here.

But as demonstrated above, Firemoth Rekindled is not at all insubstantial, and is well be worth checking out alongside Abecean Shores, even before Grasping Fortune releases.

Grasping Fortune is the next in our main line of expansions, adding a huge chunk of southwestern Morrowind, centered on the metropolis of Narsis. This is our most ambitious expansion to date, aiming to bring to life what is possibly the biggest fully developed, hand-crafted city ever made in an Elder Scrolls game or mod (do let us know if we’re wrong). We are tracking the inclusion of roughly 200 quests in Grasping Fortune, making it also the biggest volume of playable content we will have released in a single expansion.

Progress on the expansion has been staggering this past year, with more than 250 claims having received progress. Level design, both exteriors and interiors, can be considered nearly complete, with the bulk of the remaining work being quests – and even those are well on their way to completion.

Exteriors

Although most of the needed exterior landscapes for Grasping Fortune were finished before 2023, the past year has seen many optional, but welcome additions:

• Chef created a large new slice of the Coronati Basin region just to the east of the pre-existing landmass, after we decided to rethink our plan for the Deshaan district and push the borders of Deshaan regions a little further east. This slice includes the Thirr Valley 9 [1, 2] and Thirr Valley 10 exterior claims (both reviewed by MinerMan60101). Such a strip of land was needed to give a little more space to players, so they wouldn’t be forced to stare out into the “void” of missing land when traveling through the region.

• When the Coronati Basin region was first developed, the rivers and the bed of Lake Coronati were left largely unfinished. Nirvayn fixed this issue by completing the lake’s underwater landscape to wonderful detail, as well as overhauling the dreugh citadel in its depths (reviewed by MinerMan60101).

• Pickles is reworking the once-prosperous, but now largely ruined and abandoned Redoran city of Ald Iuval in the Coronati Basin region. The original exterior, developed by MinerMan60101 and Gnomey, was a little disjointed as the city surrounding the still-functoning citadel was added in as an afterthought. Pickles has been remaking it such that the whole package makes sense as a Redoran March capital. Some new Redoran ruin assets are still needed before the new version of the city can be finalized.

• The Shipal-Shin region against the Black Marsh and Cyrodiil borders was tweaked a little: first by Chef when he matched the border areas with lands being developed for the Wealth Beyond Measure expansion (coming after Grasping Fortune), and next by Pickles, who added more dirt roads throughout the region and built a small caravan stop for the Narsis East Empire Company questline (reviewed by Chef).

We are also contemplating the addition of the exterior claims Othreleth Woods 10 and Shipal-Shin 11 to the expansion, but this remains contingent upon these and the requisite interiors being reviewed in time. Other than that, the exterior worldspace for Grasping Fortune is largely done.

Interiors

Happily, interiors in the vast city of Narsis are now nearly all finished! This has been a monumental effort, one which seemed almost impossible only two or three scant years ago, but was made reality due to some smart management and the tireless efforts of our interior developers and reviewers.

The sole remaining in-development interior is the rich Mages Guild in Narsis’ Foreign Quarter. This, too, is very close to being finished by Taniquetil – with one very nifty technological set piece. As for other interiors that have been created, reviewed, and/or merged this past year, let’s go per city quarter.

The Council Quarter on top of the mesa is the heart of Narsis and includes some of the mod’s largest and most impressive interiors to date, many of which took as much effort to create as ten typical claims put together:

• The Measurehall by Fremennik, the grand seat of power and administrative center for House Hlaalu. Certainly the largest building in the mod, by itself containing more than one third as many NPCs as are in the whole city of Vivec (reviewed by Vern).
• Manor for the Second Family of House Hlaalu by Mark, the richest and gaudiest mansion in the entire province, taking up the space of a whole city block. Home to Athires Hlaalu, the current Hlaalu Grandmaster (reviewed by Vern).
• Two other large manors for the Director of the Hlaalu Council Company by Salmonroll and Tim Stonks (reviewed by Denis418) and the liaison from the Hlaalu Council Company’s Stormhold Charter over in Black Marsh by Tim Stonks (reviewed by aveno).
• Narsis Arena by CdoubleOK, using a beautiful bespoke interior mesh developed by shivatheo (reviewed by aveno).
• Eight-Bones Temple by aveno, the most important Tribunal Temple in Narsis, and the second-most in the Narsis District. Lavishly funded by the Hlaalu, it is home to Muatra, Vivec’s artifact spear (reviewed by Mark).
• Hlaalu Theatre, a tortured interior that has gone through several iterations of planning until finally arriving at a wonderful destination thanks to the work of PartiallySane, CdoubleOK, and Osidian. This grand theatre is home to a House-Hlaalu-funded Dunmeri theatre company that is currently rehearsing for the play “The Wealth of Wayrest” (reviewed by Mark).
• Imperial Consulate, an interior with a similarly roundabout development history by PartiallySane, Taniquetil, and Tim Stonks. Here is where Galvus Pottreid, the Imperial Proconsul, i.e. the Emperor’s direct representative in the province of Morrowind, can be found (reviewed by Vern).
• Three of the giant spires that dominate Narsis’ skyline were made by Adamantum, WhoKnows and Bero [1, 2], and host the elite Hlaalu Council Guard regiments (reviewed by Denis418 and Aidan1470).

The underground of Narsis is big enough to rival a city quarter all on its own, with an extensive interconnected sewer system and a catacombs to boot:

• The Catacombs by Osidian are an absolutely massive necropolis carved directly into the cliffs on which Narsis stands. Areas of it span the history of Resdayn, from modern times back to when Narsara Hla-Alu, a companion of St. Veloth’s, was first laid to rest here (reviewed by Mark).
• Council Quarter sewers by aveno, an area contested between different criminal gangs (reviewed by Vern).
• Foreign Quarter sewers by aveno, the biggest chunk of Narsis’ sewers, host to three to five different criminal factions, depending on how you count (reviewed by Peter).
• Market Quarter sewers by Peter and Bero, an area tightly controlled by the Camonna Tong (reviewed by Mark).

Aside from the Council Quarter, the new and giant Foreign Quarter in the south of the city was where most of the effort on the city’s interiors was focused this year:

• Chapel of Zenithar by bDacc and aveno, a prosperous and well-attended chapel owing to Narsis’ large outlander population and the Hlaalu’s inclination towards western ideas (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• Guild of Fighters by RyanS and Mark, the district headquarters of the guild, featuring bespoke architecture meshes (reviewed by Vern).
• Census and Excise offices by Shadowhawk_the19th. The C&E act as the harbormasters of the city, but struggle to keep up with the volume of goods that comes through (reviewed by Mark).
• Two traders: one specializing in underwater exploration gear by bDacc (reviewed by Aidan1470), and an alchemist by CdoubleOK (reviewed by Vern).
• Two taverns: the upscale Gold Dragon by Bero (reviewed by Mark) and the Fighters-Guild-affiliated A Fighting Chance by CherryGoat and WhoKnows (reviewed by aveno).
• Seven different residences by Khazar [1, 2, 3], LilianaUnfolded, RyanS, Shadowhawk_the19th, and Worm (all reviews by Mark).
• Two guard towers by Khazar and Shadowhawk_the19th (both reviewed by Mark).
• Two ships: a coast guard cutter by Khazar and LilianaUnfolded (reviewed by aveno) and Antirrhinum, an independent trading vessel by Silvone (reviewed by Vern).

In times ancient, the Old Quarter on the inclined road up the mesa formed the core of the city. Additions to it over the past year included a few residences:

• Donoril Manor by Bero, home of the Hlaalu Council’s Chief Clerk (reviewed by Mark).
• Residence of the Hlaalu Council’s Chief Inquisitor by kronifer and Exovian (reviewed by Mark).
• Apartments for rich Hlaalu retainers by AverageRedoranEnjoyer (reviewed by Mark).
• House of a barrister in the Hlaalu Council by Bero (reviewed by Mark).

Most of the Market, St. Veloth’s, and Waterfront quarters on the northern and eastern side of the city – areas that were opened for development first – were already merged a year ago, but a few final interiors still got in:

• Narsis Casino on the Narsis Waterfront by Osidian, an expensive establishment that specializes in ripping off outlanders. Narsis’ main front for the Camonna Tong (reviewed by Mark).
• A pleasure craft on the Waterfront for the Seventh Family of House Hlaalu by Vern (reviewed by Mark).
• An East Empire Company trade vessel on the Waterfront by aveno and Silvone (reviewed by Vern).
• A set of towers supporting the Market Quarter drawbridge over the river Thirr by Bero (reviewed by Vern).
• Seedy apartments in St. Veloth’s quarter by Threetooth (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).

In addition to Narsis, nearly all other interiors needed for the release have been finalized, too. Merged interiors in Shipal-Sharai, a run-down caravan town in the Shipal-Shin region west of Narsis, include:

• The Shipal-Sharai Caravanserai by AverageRedoranEnjoyer, the heart of the settlement, and its one remaining semi-prosperous institution. Its office was separately made by CdoubleOK (both reviewed by aveno).
• House of Red Wings by Phenoix12, once a prosperous showhouse putting on anything from religious plays to variety shows and cabaret, now down on its luck (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).
• Manor of the ruling minor House Hlaalu scion by Bero (reviewed by Osidian).
• An underfunded Imperial Legion post by Silvone, manned only by a skeleton crew (reviewed by Denis418).
• Sapphire Slouch Cornerclub by Shadowhawk_the19th, the town’s main inn (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• A small hidden Twin Lamps safehouse by WhoKnows (reviewed by Denis418).
• Five stores: a master arbalest by Salmonroll and Karolus (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff), a jewellery by Bero (reviewed by Denis418), an apothecary by Osidian (reviewed by Denis418), a general goods store by Aidan1470 (reviewed by Osidian), and an abandoned store by CdoubleOK (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• Nine residences by Khazar [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] (reviewed by Aidan1470 and Denis418), Bero [1, 2] (reviewed by Osidian), Nirvayn (reviewed by Denis418), and Deenday (reviewed by Osidian).
• A semi-abandoned warehouse by Khazar (reviewed by Denis418).
• The town’s depleted and abandoned mines by CdoubleOK (reviewed by Denis418).

One of the few other civilized locations in Shipal-Shin is Septim’s Gate Pass, the border fort with Cyrodiil, through which the Imperial Purple Road runs. Its remaining interiors are now merged:

• Scent of Niben by Quit, an inn servicing pilgrims and travelers from Mir Corrup (reviewed by Denis418).
• Census & Excise office by Khazar (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• Main keep by aveno, hosting some merchants and the Legion garrison (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• A pair of watchtowers by Exovian (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).

Other than those settlements, there are several important mines and a small handful of farms and plantations in Shipal-Shin, with most of the latter two having already been finished last year. The ones added this year include:

• Two sapphire mines – the main mineral wealth of the Shipal-Shin region – by aveno [1, 2] (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).
• Seven Kwama egg mines: a giant, built-up mine by Shadowhawk_the19th just outside of Narsis, run by Clan Hlaalu (reviewed by CdoubleOK), one near the rich Vedas plantation by Silvone (reviewed by Denis418), another one for the Adavrin Plantation by AverageRedoranEnjoyer (reviewed by Tim Stonks), and smaller ones by Shadowhawk_the19th [1, 2] (reviewed by Tim Stonks and CdoubleOK), Khazar (reviewed by CdoubleOK), and bDacc (reviewed by aveno).
• Two small netch ranches by Khazar [1, 2, 3] (reviewed by Vern and Osidian).

Outside of the outposts of settled peoples, the wilds of Shipal-Shin are dominated by the nomadic, but Tribunal-Temple-worshipping Shinathi clans, a wholly new culture developed by Tamriel Rebuilt with its own faces, clothes, armor, and trade goods. The Shinathi have an off-and-on relationship with House Hlaalu, sometimes serving as caravan guards, other times as raiders. Grasping Fortune will feature two Shinathi clans: the peaceful and mercantile Ussiran and the more warlike Nasar. The dwellings of both clans have now been finished, as have some one-offs:

• Yandaran is the ancient Chimeri Stronghold where the Nasar make their camp. Its interiors were created by RDV [1, 2, 3] (reviewed by Osidian), RDV and Boznirith (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff and Osidian), and aveno [1, 2] (reviewed by Osidian).
• A large smuggler cave for the Nasar made by RDV, aveno, and Tim Stonks (reviewed by CdoubleOK).
• Clan Nasar’s Kwoom breeding pool – the Sand Kwoom being the Shinathi’s most important domesticated beast – by Kildozery (reviewed by Tim Stonks).
• The tent for the elder council of the Ussiran, finished already in 2021 by christixn, was recently reviewed by Denis418.
• An Ussiran-occupied Velothi tower by Serpentbyte (reviewed by aveno).
• The Ussiran’s hidden Kwoom breeding pool made by Tim Stonks (reviewed by Osidian).
• The Ussiran’s hideout for stolen and smuggled goods, made by RDV (reviewed by aveno).
• A cave hideout for unaffiliated Shinathi canyon watchers by aveno (reviewed by CdoubleOK).
• A set of tents by Khazar and an occupied cave by Tim Stonks for a hostile group of Shinathi (reviewed by CdoubleOK).

Possibly the biggest single line item that the interiors department tackled this past year was the multitude of miscellaneous Shipal-Shin wilderness locations. Nearly all are now finished and merged:

• Deserving special mention is the Grand Hlaalu Ancestral Tomb, an enormous and generally well-maintained underground complex just outside of Narsis, developed over the course of almost a full year by Aidan1470. This is where the First, Second, Third, and Sixth families of House Hlaalu inter their dead (reviewed by CdoubleOK). It also comes with a guard tower made by nectarine juice (reviewed by Vern).

• Fort Casimor by Ragox and obie dwyer, a Reman Imperial fort ruin near the Cyrodiil border, built during the Four Score War at the end of the First Era. This one will feature a very special end boss, a target of a Fighters Guild quest (reviewed by Denis418).

• The long-lost burial cavern of a Cyrodiilic merchant saint who first discovered the passes through Shipal-Shin, by LilianaUnfolded (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).

• Two Chimeri strongholds: Kaladryon by Tim Stonks, occupied by slavers as a base for illegal raids into Black Marsh (reviewed by aveno) and Indomarano by aveno, a lair for undead (reviewed by CdoubleOK).

• Three ancient Velothi towers: most significantly Ald Orend by Peter, Lumpag, and aveno, which houses Narsis district’s Dark Brotherhood cell (reviewed by Osidian), but also Sarahu by aveno, inhabited by a hostile warlock (reviewed by Vern) and Muld by BarbedWireKisses, inhabited by an old Hlaalu mystic (reviewed by Osidian).

• Four daedric ruins: the “city” of Ald Khan by Am’Shak, once dedicated to Molag Bal, (reviewed by Vern); Ashurbalipal by aveno, another daedric “city”, once the settlement of a Chimer minor house and now dedicated to Sheogorath (reviewed by Tim Stonks); Kaushirimilk by aveno, a Molag Bal shrine (reviewed by MinerMan60101); and Ebamusharisus, a Malacath shrine by RDV (reviewed by MinerMan60101).

• Nine additional ancestral tombs by Khazar [1, 2, 3] (reviewed by Osidian, aveno and Tim Stonks), aveno [1, 2] (reviewed by Osidian), RDV (reviewed by aveno), RDV and Cream Sandwich (reviewed by aveno), Ragox (reviewed by Osidian), and AverageRedoranEnjoyer (reviewed by Denis418).

• Four abandoned mines by Silvone (reviewed by aveno), RDV (reviewed by Tim Stonks), CdoubleOK (reviewed by Osidian), and Bero (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).

• Nine caves occupied by bandits, smugglers, or fugitives by Cream Sandwich [1, 2] (reviewed by Tim Stonks), aveno [1, 2] (reviewed by Aidan1470 and Denis418), Salmonroll and aveno (reviewed by Denis418), Aidan1470 (reviewed by Vern), MinerMan60101 (reviewed by Denis418), Snailsting and LilianaUnfolded (reviewed by Tim Stonks), RDV (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff and minerman60101), and Paramelia (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).

• Four wild caves by aveno [1, 2] (reviewed by MinerMan60101 and jackimoff wackimoff), Tim Stonks (reviewed by CdoubleOK), RyanS (reviewed by Osidian),

• A special cave with a hidden Nedic burial chamber by Aveno, featuring a set of newly modelled burial goods to mark this enigmatic, long-lost culture (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff).

Only a couple of locations in Shipal-Shin remain either unfinished or un-reviewed:

• Mala Tor, an ancient guard tower of the Barsaebic Ayleids of Black Marsh that stands over Stormgate Pass. Remains in development by Phenoix12, pending new assets.
• Uddonu, a giant Velothi tower complex featuring all-new architecture meshes, being the home base of the nasty Ja-Natta crime syndicate. It is partially finished by Osidian (reviewed by Mark), whereas the other part remains in development, pending new assets.
• Overhaul of the Tribunal Temple compound at the source of the Thirr River to become Number Rooms Temple, a Buoyant Armiger base that guards an important artifact. It is finished by Cicero and pending review.

A comparable number of interiors were made for the Coronati Basin region, an area that has been in the works since 2018. A lot had been done in prior years, but this past year saw a surge in reviewing finished claims and filling out all the remaining ones. First, the towns of Coronati Basin, all of which were nearly complete a year ago, finally had their last claims mopped up:

• The Dunmer Chapel of Stendarr in the small fishing town of Sadrathim, made by Saddboye, was reviewed by Denis418 and Mark already prior to the last progress report, but the interior itself is now merged into the Narsis section file.
• The Diamond Dancer, a Dunmer ship in the town of Hlerynhul, was refit by Fremennik to use the new small Dunmer ship pieces (reviewed by Vern).
• Another new small ship was added to Hlerynhul by aveno for an upcoming Fighters Guild quest (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• The Council Hall of the Redoran Waters March in Ald Iuval was finished by Peter thanks to brand new architecture pieces made by shivatheo (reviewed by Denis418).
• An abandoned manor in Ald Iuval was refit by aveno for use as a Ja-Natta Syndicate lair (reviewed by Denis418).
• A Camonna Tong tradeship for the town of Ald Marak was created by Aureant333 for use in the local House Redoran questline (reviewed by aveno).

Bear in mind that both Ald Iuval and Ald Marak will likely need to receive some substantial new interiors and interior touch-ups prior to the expansion’s release – both because many of the buildings there were made at a time when our current interior quality standards hadn’t crystallized yet and also because Pickles is currently remaking and expanding the exteriors of both towns.

Most interiors in the Coronati Basin wilderness had been largely done for a while, but had been sitting unreviewed in our claims browser, sometimes for years, as reviewers were focused on other parts of the province. This past year, however, they picked up the slack and went to town, finishing up the whole region:

• Withering Murk, a large new dreugh citadel at the bottom of Lake Coronati, newly completed by CdoubleOK (reviewed by MinerMan60101). Lamberthassel also added a shipwreck interior close to the citadel (reviewed by aveno).
• Six farmhouses by Khazar [1, 2] (reviewed by Aidan1470 and Peter), Dubba_D and Khazar [1, 2] (reviewed by Peter, Mark, and Osidian), RDV and Khazar (reviewed by aveno), and Exovian (reviewed by Osidian).
• A ruined Redoran hut by CherryGoat (reviewed by Peter).
• A large Kwama egg mine near Narsis by RDV (reviewed by aveno).
• The stronghold of Vandirelyon near the town of Othmura by Quit and CdoubleOK (reviewed by Vern and aveno).
• Four tombs by aveno (reviewed by Peter), ymAtarax1A and aveno (reviewed by Aidan1470), RDV (reviewed by Aidan1470), and talesofgames (reviewed by MinerMan60101). The last one was actually made and reviewed in 2019, but fell through the cracks somehow, only being merged last year.
• Four caves by aveno (reviewed by Aidan1470), Snailsting (reviewed by aveno), OuranOS (reviewed by aveno), and Pateepa (reviewed by aveno).

The eastern strip of the Coronati Basin that Chef developed some months ago was filled in with new interiors very quickly. All are now merged:

• The biggest location in this area is the Mavandes Caravanserai that supplies traders moving between Narsis and the town of Hairab in House Dres lands. The caravanserai contains an inn by Lamberthassel (reviewed by MinerMan60101), a guard tower, and a trade outpost, both by Khazar (reviewed by Aidan1470 and aveno).
• Two mines: a sapphire mine by Tim Stonks (reviewed by CdoubleOK) and a Kwama egg mine by BarbedWireKisses (reviewed by aveno).
• A farmhouse specializing in Hamum root by Kalinnikov (reviewed by Osidian).
• Three ancestral tombs by Terrifying Daedric Foe, Shadowhawk_the19th, and CdoubleOK (all reviewed by aveno).
• A small grotto by Kalinnikov (reviewed by Aidan1470).

Our highly productive interior level designers even managed to squeeze in a whole slew of Coronati Basin touch-up claims to bring older, generally pre-2022 interiors up to a modern level of consistency and quality, and to sprinkle in newly made 3D assets. All in this category were reviewed by the tireless aveno, unless otherwise noted:

• Six plantations, farmhouses, ranches, and shacks by CdoubleOK [1, 2, 3] (reviewed by Peter and aveno), Aureant333, Deenday, and Bero.
• Two guard towers by CdoubleOK [1, 2].
• Two Kwama egg mines by R.R.S.S.K and Shadowhawk_the19th and LilianaUnfolded.
• Two Daedric ruins: a Molag Bal shrine by Snailsting and a huge Mephala shrine by aveno, one of the few Good Daedra shrines in the mod (reviewed by Aidan1470).
• Two ancestral tombs by Aureant333 and Exovian
• Five caves by LilianaUnfolded [1, 2], CdoubleOK [1, 2], and Paramelia.

Interiors-wise, all that is really needed for Grasping Fortune, aside from a handful of smaller items, are the Skyrender hives, which still await the completion of unique assets.

Quests

While you saw the early days of Grasping Fortune quests in last year’s progress update, the picture is night and day compared to mid-2023. The progress has been above all expectations, as not only have senior quest developers mapped out almost all the required quests and questlines on a claim-description level, all but a few of these are now either finished or actively being worked on. Despite this, the road ahead to a fully quested Grasping Fortune is still long.

The first places to receive their quests in this expansion were the towns of the Coronati Basin. First, the town of Othmura, once a fishing village that has recently expanded to a full town thanks to increased trade (and not least thanks to the waning of Ald Iuval). NPCs for the town were already done more than a year ago, but now all quests save for one are finished and merged, too:

• The Othmura House Hlaalu Questline by Khazar, a set of tasks for the governor that deal in inter-Hlaalu rivalry, slavery, banditry, and anti-Redoran activities. It even includes an integration quest with our version of Firemoth (reviewed by Revane).
• Bandits in Kuriki by LogansGun, a simple kill quest (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Letter for Edalvel Plantation by mr.potato, a simple delivery quest that gets a little more morally complex if you “accidentally” open the letter (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• The Family Business by KnobelKnight, where you help a brother out of a tricky social situation (reviewed by pralec).
• Changing Houses by CogAndStar, where you help a Redoran refugee find her stolen belongings (reviewed by Revane).
• A Brother’s Love by Ricketybob, where an Altmer has to deal with the consequences of his conversion to the Tribunal (reviewed by Ronik).
• The only thing left in development in Othmura is a small Mages Guild Questline dealing with the stronghold of Vandirelyon and the treasure within. Blueshift is now working on finishing it.

The larger and wealthier town of Hlerynhul on the mouth of the Kanit river is, similarly, almost complete:

• The local Fighters Guild questline by FlinSunset was the first to get finished – highlighting the unscrupulous lord of Hlerynhul, Ivul Hleryn, and a guild chapter that is all too eager to take the money (reviewed by Revane).
• Affairs of the Heart by Khazar, where you help a particularly misguided Breton adventurer find love (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• The Pauper and the Prince by Khazar, showing that anyone can be a daedric cultist (reviewed by pralec).
• Helping Others by Khazar, dealing with a scout’s somewhat suspicious call for help (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Pearls for Conrel by CdoubleOK, a simple quest having you dive into Lake Coronati (reviewed by pralec).
• Proving Faith by jimmynutsmd – help a freelance mage escape Mages Guild membership by becoming a Tribunal priest instead (reviewed by pralec).
• Making Peace by LogansGun, dealing with a pair of drunken sailors. This quest is finished, but still pending review.
• The Hlerynhul Imperial Cult questline by Donnerino and FlinSunset is also finished and pending review. This questline for the local Chapel of Dibella deals with the tensions that Ivul Hleryn’s sponsorship of the chapel has created among the traditionalist Dunmer.
• The sole claim remaining in development in Hlerynhul is the Imperial Legion questline, which is being worked on by hammered on sujammer. This is a low-level questline introducing the Legion’s role in the region, which is largely to guard against Redoran-Hlaalu disputes turning violent.

Sadrathim, a fishing settlement sponsored by the powerful Sadras family, is the smallest of the Coronati Basin towns, and is now quest-complete:

• Revane first created the NPCs and general dialogue for the town about a year ago (reviewed by pralec).
• Defiling with Holiness by jimmynutsmd has you help or dissuade a Dunmer Imperial Cult convert in their quest to also convert their dead ancestors (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• The Curse of Foul Stench by kari.nu, where an arrogant Altmer happened upon an unfortunate adversary (reviewed by Revane).

Ald Iuval and Ald Marak are twin Redoran fortress towns and the sole remnants of the once-great Redoran Waters March. Given the ongoing exterior rework and, earlier, a long wait for bespoke building assets, questing there isn’t quite as advanced, but is still relatively far along with all miscellaneous quests done and questlines well on their way:

• pralec and Revane finished the NPCing and general dialogue for both towns this April (reviewed by Mortimer).
• Ornada One Bites the Dust by SpottheCat where you cure a diseased critter near Ald Iuval (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Always Something to Learn by jimmynutsmd, where you need to convince a master trainer in Ald Marak to offer you their knowledge (reviewed by Ronik).
• Freeing Gulveeus by jimmynutsmd – a freed slave implores you to ensure that their once-companion ends up free, too (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• The Ald Iuval House Redoran questline by Ronik is finished, but pending review. The questline highlights the desperation with which the chair of the Waters March, Felmaru Llendu, is holding onto the little remaining Redoran turf in southern Morrowind.
• The Ald Marak House Redoran questline remains in development by Delemis. Contrasting with Llendu of Ald Iuval, the Ald Marak commander Delis Llethri is much more practically minded and works to better the lives of the local Dunmer.
• The Ald Iuval Temple questline is in development by Ricketybob. The local Temple is torn between its ancient ties to the Redoran and the now-crumbled city it was once a part of and the promise of Hlaalu patronage and a more important role in the region.
• The Ja-Natta Syndicate questline, being developed by pralec, shows the new and unscrupulous syndicate shoulder their way into the underworld of the Coronati Basin.

All smaller locales in the Coronati Basin now have their full complement of quests:

• Revane first finished the regions’ wilderness NPCing and general dialogue, filling both the farmhouses and dungeons with interactable actors (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Partners in Wine by Khazar – negotiate a deal in Hladry Winery (reviewed by Revane).
• Bugtesting by pralec, where you help a wacky bug-nerd near Othmura bio-engineer some Morrowind critters (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Supplies for Sanvyr Deroth by Khazar – help the publican at the Hlaalu Ferry put the new settlement on the map (reviewed by pralec).

Clearly the biggest item on the questers’ lists is the metropolis of Narsis. First, over a thousand Narsis NPCs needed to be created, as well as location-based generic dialogue for the city’s many different quarters, all requiring meticulous planning beforehand (and, well, a lot of iteration). Most of the work was completed by Revane, but with some substantial parts done by others, too:

• Market Quarter NPCs and dialogue by Revane (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• St. Veloth Quarter NPCs and dialogue by Revane, with tweaks by kari.nu (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Waterfront NPCs and dialogue by Revane (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Foreign Quarter NPCs and dialogue were done by Taniquetil with smaller parts added by FlinSunset and Wanax (reviewed by FlinSunset, pralec, and Revane).
• Old Quarter NPCs and dialogue by Revane (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Council Quarter NPCs and dialogue by Revane [1, 2] – including also Castle Narsis, the Duke’s residence, just outside of the city – and Ronik (all reviewed by FlinSunset).
• What remains to be done is a series of general dialogue lines applicable for the whole city, although Mark already made some headway on that.

As for quests proper, delineating just the smaller Narsis House Hlaalu quests takes a whole section, whereas the main House Hlaalu questlines in the city are still in the conceptualization phase and yet to enter development proper. The ones in the works so far are meant to familiarize the player with the various personalities and factions inside the sprawling House Hlaalu hierarchy:

• Two quests for the Vedas family by SpottheCat are finished – do some strong-arming to ensure good trade deals and put Ivul Hleryn in his place (reviewed by pralec).
• A quest for the Dren family was very recently finished by mr.potato, dealing with the rift among the two brothers on Vvardenfell. It is pending review.
• Two quests for the Raran family are being worked on by LogansGun – help spy on Indoril plans and investigate a theft.
• Nine quests for four sub-families within Clan Hlaalu are in the works by Mark, each introducing you to the particular theme of the sub-family in mind.

Narsis will have faction questlines for just about every conceivable game faction and, in some cases, two. Not all have received progress yet, but most are at least in development, if not already finished:

• The only one currently merged is the mid-level Fighters Guild questline by Blueshift, a series of simple jobs for familiarizing the player with Narsis and its surroundings (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• The high-level Eight-Bones Temple questline by minifly consists of a series of high-stakes prestige crusades against powerful enemies of the Temple (reviewed by Mortimer).
• Guildmaster quests for the Fighters Guild, finished by FlinSunset, shows the various guildhalls in Narsis district bickering over the extent of Imperial influence on guild affairs while also dealing with corruptive Hlaalu pressure. The questline is currently pending review.
• The East Empire Company questline by Threetooth, currently pending review, has you haggle between different Hlaalu sub-families, enrich the local company Factor, and meddle with its chief competitor in Narsis District, the Hlaalu Council Company.
• The Imperial Cult questline is finished by Wanax and awaiting review. Focused on sacred artifacts, like the vanilla Imperial Cult, this one also touches on the competition for adherents between the Cult and the Tribunal Temple, as well as the more mercantile aspects of the Cult of Zenithar.
• The Narsis Arena questline by jimmynutsmd, the last one pending review, is a long set of increasingly difficult fights against charismatic opponents. The Narsis Arena is relatively civilized – except in a few cases, fights are supposed to end short of the opponent’s death.
• The Thieves Guild questline is still in development by Ronik. The questline focuses on a gang war between the various criminal factions in the Narsis underworld, especially against the Camonna Tong, and culminates in a heist at the Narsis Casino, the Tong’s main stronghold.
• The Ja-Natta Syndicate questline is being worked on by Blueshift. Unlike the relatively protectionist Thieves Guild, the much nastier Ja-Natta Syndicate seek to overturn the rule of the Camonna Tong in the city – but would the city be any better off?
• The Imperial Legion questline is being developed by LogansGun. Members of the mismanaged Heron Hall garrison will take on the role of cop, not soldier, and decide how best to navigate the rotten maze that is Narsis law enforcement.
• The first part of Tamriel Rebuilt’s Twin Lamps questline will begin in Narsis, and is being developed by Taniquetil. This will be a province-spanning questline, the end reward of which will be rather significant change in province politics.

Such a city wouldn’t be complete without a full complement of miscellaneous quests for players to stumble upon. Quite a few of those are already done and many of the rest are in development:

• Bearing Bad News by jimmynutsmd – facilitate a long-distance communication between two estranged spouses (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Paying Dues by kari.nu – help a merchant recover from a Camonna Tong swindle (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Traipsing with Danger by Revane – help a father locate his reckless son (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Join the Camonna Tong by Wanax – intervene in a Camonna Tong recruitment (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Robe of Heavy Swinging by kronifer – recover an enchanted robe from a thief (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Caravan by Donnerino – help a Khajiit sell the card game “Caravan” to the Narsis Casino (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Robbing the Ancestors by FlinSunset – help a Mages Guild apprentice double-cross a Camonna Tong loan shark (reviewed by Ronik).
• Rescue the Pot Lady is finished by Khazar, but pending review. A kindly senile Dunmer lady has gone missing.
• A Matter of Pedigree is finished by Khazar, but pending review. A Dunmer commoner is hoping to prove his connection to a revered old family.
• Up in the Air is finished by Khazar, but pending review. A sore-legged clerk working near the top of one of Narsis’ towers asks you to help deliver a letter downstairs.
• Thirst in Verse is finished by LogansGun, but pending review. An arena patron wants your help in properly cheering on her favourite arena champion.
• Distinct Distaste is finished by SpottheCat, but pending review. A surly Nord has quite a few words to say about the local brews.
• The Long Jump remains in development by pralec – a minigame where a Mages Guild member rewards you for making long jumps down to other rooftops.
• Stage Fright is being worked on by Blueshift – the lead actor in the Narsis Theatre’s next play has developed a deathly fear of the stage.
• Daedric Origin is in development by kari.nu – a vampire quest dealing with Namira worshippers in the Narsis underground.
• Pious and Persecuted is being developed by Ronik – a devout prisoner hopes to convince you of the seriousness of his faith.

The small town of Shipal-Sharai will have quite a number of quests, with the majority already finished:

• NPCs and general dialogue for the town were finished by FlinSunset (reviewed by Mortimer).
• The House Hlaalu questline by kari.nu focuses on the decline of Hlaalu rulership in the town, as the local lord spins his own mysterious plans (reviewed by FlinSunset).
• Painting Reclamation by Ronik has you help a poor artist steal back a painting from an ungrateful customer (reviewed by Revane).
• A Family Affair by SpottheCat – a Dunmer merchant, betrayed and left for dead in the desert by his brother-in-law, seeks revenge, while the sister and wife is caught in the middle (reviewed by Ronik).
• Lifting the Spirits by Blueshift – the House of Red Wings needs to get a new shipment of booze – obviously, the ends justify the means (reviewed by Revane).
• The Imperial Legion questline is finished by jimmynutsmd, but not reviewed. Help an undermanned legion outpost lay down the law in the Wild West of Morrowind.
• Sense of Apprehension is being developed by darkfaerie. A Bosmer asks you to find his “friend” in the Shipal-Shin wilderness.

An adventurous player will also discover a bunch of interesting characters and a few quests in the smaller settlements and wilderness of Shipal-Shin.

• FlinSunset added NPCs and dialogue for the Hlaalu plantations in the region (reviewed by Ronik).
• kari.nu did the same for the two border posts – Septim’s Gate and Stormgate (reviewed by pralec).
• Revane added the characters and dialogue in the region’s Shinathi camps by Revane (reviewed by Ronik).
• Gweiwen’s Slave Trouble by Mephala Worshipper – a Cat-Catcher in Stormgate Pass asks you to track down an escaped Argonian slave (reviewed by Revane).
• A Long Way Down is finished by jimmynutsmd, but pending review. A merchant has tragically fallen to their death from a Shipal-Shin mesa – is someone to blame?

A couple more new quests or encounters to be shipped with Grasping Fortune don’t fit any of the categories above:

• A series of secret daedric rewards were placed by Cicero in hidden locations throughout the new Grasping Fortune landmass. Most of these are temporary, until proper daedric quests are made in the future – but since the artifacts themselves are already made, they may as well be available to players.
• Old Ebonheart Fighters Guild: “Cursing like a Witch” finalization is being developed by FlinSunset – the old quest, first released in 2018, teased a tie-in with Narsis. Now is the time to implement it.

As you could see, it’s a tough job even listing all the great progress on Grasping Fortune in the past year. Even so, many other questlines and even some baseline NPCing and general dialogue still remains to be added. But if this pace continues, the release of this massive expansion may be mere months away.

Up next after Grasping Fortune will be Poison Song, an expansion slated to overhaul one of our least-impressive old regions, Sundered Scar, and bring it up to modern standards as a sulphuric wasteland of geysers and volcanoes, something of an extension to the Molag Amur region to its north. In our lore, the region was left abandoned by the Indoril as a symbolic gesture to mark the loss of Nerevar, whose domain this land once was; its few denizens are left to fend for themselves, although with some help from the Temple.

Much more than only a landscape overhaul, this expansion will add a ton of quests to the Sundered Scar, but will also tentatively include a sliver of the new, lush Orethan region surrounding the city of Almalexia, centered on the town of Othrenis and the Indoril chapel of Nanaav. Most strikingly, it may also feature our first two or three House Indoril questlines, although questing for Poison Song has not yet officially begun.

As this is a side-burner project compared to our main line of upcoming expansions in western Morrowind, progress this last year has been more modest, but a substantial amount of exterior landscape and a ton of interiors have still come in.

Exteriors

Exterior level design on Poison Song dates back to 2022 (with some movements already in 2021), and the past year has brought in both the completion of many pieces of the landscape, but also an expansion of scope. For the core of the expansion, the Sundered Scar region:

• As an exterior showcase, pralec made the Sundered Scar 7 exterior claim. This is where Ida Vano, the House Indoril player’s stronghold, will one day stand (reviewed by Chef).
• pralec then completed Sundered Scar 2, one of the larger claims of the region, which was begun under MinerMan60101’s hand. This area contains the new location of the ruins of Kemel-Ze and the wonderfully vertical Velothi town of Marog, one of the few settlements of the region (reviewed by Chef).
• Quit, another relatively new, but talented exterior level designer, made short work of Sundered Scar 3, where the old Inn Between was replaced with a Velothi caravanserai more fitting with our current planning (reviewed by Chef).

• Quit moved on to finish Sundered Scar 9 just to the former’s south, dominated by the volcanic Mount Telnaro (reviewed by Chef).
• Quit’s current project is Sundered Scar 8, which holds the volcanic ridge just to the east of Old Ebonheart, building off of Chef’s work in 2023. The big volcano east of Old Ebonheart will be much more imposing.
• Phenoix12 is continuing on with Sundered Scar 5, which was earlier worked on by Cicero, and which hosts Varon, the last of the region’s three settlements to be developed.

Claims in the Orethan region just to the south of Sundered Scar were opened in late 2023, and will feature lush and tranquil lands dotted with bountiful farms. In truth, the region asset palette is not exactly complete as we are still waiting on a few plant models to materialize before the region will receive its final look. Enough are present that work can proceed, however, and some claims are already approaching completion, though none are yet reviewed:

• The only Orethan claim currently completed is Orethan 3 by Quit that contains a stretch of Veloth’s Path heading towards Othrenis and the legion garrison of Fort Grassmoth. It is pending review.
• Orethan 2 was, likewise, brought close to completion by Quit, with help from Pickles. It contains one of the main towns of the expansion, Othrenis, a hub for both grain and slave trade between Indoril and Dres lands.
• Orethan 1 was the first claim in the region to be worked on. The claim centers on the Indoril chapel of Nanaav, a rather more airy and garden-like affair than the fortress of Roa Dyr. Chef has brought it close to completion, but is awaiting on further Indoril architecture assets before doing the final bit.
• Orethan 4, a transitional claim between the Sundred Scar region and the Orethan, is getting slowly but steadily chipped away by Fremennik.
• Orethan 5, another piece of tranquil countryside on a region transition, is coming together under MinerMan60101’s hand.

Something we have wanted to do since 2021 was to overhaul much of the landscape in the rocky Roth Roryn region that came with 2022’s Dominions of Dust – exteriors that were largely made in 2010 and 2011 (with some later modifications) and that often suffer from what we’d now consider un-vanilla design practices. Only a small part of this work was finished prior to the expansion’s original release, as changes to the landscape interfered with ongoing questing work. But with exterior claims in other areas drying up in mid-2023, we decided to reopen the remaining areas as a low-priority side project for interested level designers, who wish to bring this badlands and bandit-haven up to sweet-sweet vanilla standards. Some claims have made progress since, but none are yet reviewed:

• Roth Roryn overhaul 8 by WhoKnows is finished and pending review. It is a particularly rocky area featuring the Monastery of St. Aralor. The rework focused on making the area more open, reducing cliff use in favor of the terrain mesh, and adding more paths to points of interest.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 11 by Lestet is also finished and pending review – a thin strip of land west of Andothren that needed its rock spam culled and terrain mesh use improved. It is a claim with a smaller scope, as much of the area was already touched up in 2021.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 5 was finished in 2021, but Osidian made a small change to facilitate the ongoing Roth Roryn interior cleanup (see below). It is pending review.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 4 by mothpot is very close to being done, only pending the completion of a couple of new architecture assets. It centers on the southern bend of the Priyai river where the St. Felms Monastery stands, reducing the area’s cliff usage and rationalizing its many cave dwellings.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 1, in progress by mothpot, centers on touching up the lower run of the Priyai and Roryn rivers, making it conform to our new map shape.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 2 has largely been finished by Phenoix12, with only a tiny bit still left to do. The focus was on better road placement and land mesh use in an area where Roth Roryn transitions into the lower slopes of the Velothi Mountains. A further touch-up to the area around Bodrum towards the west was also made.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 9 centers on the town of Menaan, nestled in a small, verdant valley. Although mostly finished from a landscape perspective since 2021, Osidian recently overhauled Menaan’s exterior to make it much less janky and to help fix old interiors. Work still remains to take the large Anbarsud pit mine up to standard.
• Roth Roryn overhaul 10, stretching from the Imperial town of Teyn to the daedric ruin of Veranzaris, was worked on by WhoKnows, but is now awaiting a new claimant. The surroundings of the daedric ruin Veranzaris need the most love here.

For the moment, exterior level design remains the pacing item for Poison Song. Aside from the claims listed above, we still need to replace the Gorne chapel, which currently uses Mournhold architecture, with our new Indoril architecture tileset. The same is already being done for the Roa Dyr chapel in Aanthirin by pralec – Gnomey built the existing chapel in 2019 explicitly as a placeholder for until proper architecture pieces would emerge. Some more work on the tileset assets needs to happen before the new Roa Dyr is ready to be shown, however. Finally, our original town of Marog and Kemel-Ze, just to the south of Helnim, need to be removed, as the versions listed above will take their names. This way, we can also remove the last of our old, nasty peninsulas that used to jut out very near towards Vvardenfell, making the Inner Sea un-navigably narrow.

Expect much more rapid movement on Poison Song exteriors once Province: Cyrodiil’s Abecean Shores and, especially, Grasping Fortune is released.

Interiors

These days, our interior level design team is in such an overdrive that interior claims need to be opened up the moment an exterior claim gets reviewed, lest our developers grow idle. In Sundered Scar, too, finished exteriors have had almost all of their corresponding interiors already completed. Interior reviews, however, are something of a bottleneck for us, so most of these will be waiting until our reviewers get a chance to really focus on the release – but that is already starting to happen.

The first of Sundered Scar’s interiors to be completed were in the town of Darvonis, the largest in the region, boasting a Tribunal Temple and a semi-famous Dust Market. Although part of the town had already been merged prior to our last progress update article in July 2023 and most of it was reviewed, its finalization took a little while longer. All of the ones below were reviewed by Denis418:

• Headquarters of the Darvonis Watch by Aidan1470, the Temple-organized militia that guards the town and its surroundings in the Indorils’ absence.
• Dust Market by aveno, the largest trade hub of the region.
• Tribunal Temple by aveno.
• Salt purifier by aveno, where the locals purify water for drinking.
• The town’s lighthouse by Osidian, using Mwgek’s wonderful new Velothi lighthouse mesh.
• A Dunmer ship by Khazar, serving as the fast travel provider.
• A large Kwama egg mine by aveno.
• Two residences by Deenday and Azrayel.

The second settlement in the region to be opened for claiming was Marog, a small port town in a rocky part of the Sundered Scar, which benefits from tourism to the famous nearby Dwarwen ruin of Kemel-Ze. All interiors, save for one, have been finished by their claimants. Aidan1470 recently took it upon themself to review the town entire and is nearly done:

• Outfitter by SpottheCat, selling inexpensive adventuring gear.
• The Three Treasures Cornerclub by Sheoguarath, frequented by adventurers and traveling wasteland workers.
• A Dwemer souvenir seller’s residence by Tiglath-Pileser III.
• Docks warehouse by BarbedWireKisses.
• Five residences by BarbedWireKisses, Deenday and Cream Sandwich, Fremennik, Kildozery, Toma400, and kronifer.
• The Ash Market by tranescendent, a small trade market, is pending review.
• A guard tower by nuclearwinter is pending review.

On the eastern edge of the Sundered Scar region lies the new caravanserai (not yet named) that will replace the Inn Between. This inn has had a quite varied history, being first created in 2004 as a literal treehouse (as in, an Imperial “common” house suspended in a tree), called the Dragon’s Nest Inn – a place of refuge from unbeatable monsters that were planned to be added to the nearby Dun Akafell. For years, this construct was the darling of Tamriel Rebuilt developers, but as its surroundings were increasingly purged of early-2000s goofiness, it became clear that something less weird had to replace it. Thus, in 2011, it was swapped out for the much more sober Inn Between, built in the Mournhold architecture set, although its colourful cast of characters still retain hints of this wild past.

Since 2011, a lot of soul-searching has been done around the nature of House Indoril and their relationship to the people living under them. One outcome is that we sorely want the Indoril and their architecture to be a thing of nobles, divorced from the common folk. Moreover, with the materialization of a proper Indoril tileset by shivatheo, we now wish to reserve the Mournhold architecture set from TES III: Tribunal to be exclusive to the city of Almalexia. Hence, to conform to our larger plans for Indoril lands, we reluctantly had to scrap the cozy exterior of the Inn Between. A larger caravanserai in the Velothi tileset will now take its place, playing into the theme of a thin slice of civilization amid a hostile wilderness. We hope players will fall in love with this one too.

In any case, three interior claims comprise the caravanserai:

• A trade outpost by aveno, where an elderly shopkeep provides the player with regional information and basic goods. Pending review.
• The inn by WhoKnows, hosting traveling merchants and grizzled workers. Pending review.
• A guard tower by WhoKnows remains in development.

Most of Sundered Scar is wilderness, however, which is where most of the effort on the region’s interiors has gone. Unless indicated otherwise, all interiors in this category are finished, but un-reviewed:

• The bandit-occupied Chimeri stronghold of Farasimayn by Boznirith and Exovian.
• The stronghold of Morandano by Pateepa is taken over by rogue conjurers. It is partly reviewed by Aidan1470 and partly un-reviewed.
• A creepy dreugh hive by nuclearwinter.
• A couple of smuggler tents by Slowchu.
• Four Velothi towers: a lich-occupied tower by Aureant333, a necromancer’s tower by CdoubleOK, a tower home to a Dremora mage by Tiglath-Pileser III, and one taken over by a trio of outlander adventurers by Vukov.
• Four daedric ruins: a huge, multi-celled ruined Daedric city honoring Dagon by CdoubleOK, a small Molag Bal shrine by Osidian (reviewed by Cicero), and two small shrines to Sheogorath by CdoubleOK and Evil Eye.
• Two Dwemer ruins, both by aveno: one host to an Imperial Archaeological Society expendion and another non-looted one.
• Three shipwrecks: a Redoran tradeship by LilianaUnfolded (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff), a naval galleon by aveno, and a Dunmer passanger ship by BarbedWireKisses.

• Nine Dunmer ancestral tombs by BarbedWireKisses [1, 2] (one reviewed by aveno), Marhaus (reviewed by aveno), Sliced Bread (reviewed by Aidan1470), ines_g and Cream Sandwich, LilianaUnfolded, nuclearwinter, Quit, and ymAtarax1A. Still in development by Silvone and Cicero is the sprawling ancestral tomb of the ancient Mora clan, who used to rule the region before the Battle of the Red Mountain.
• Three mineral mines: a glass mine and a diamond mine, both by Dubba_D, and a sulfur mine by Osidian.
• Four Kwama egg mines by BarbedWireKisses, AverageRedoranEnjoyer, and nuclearwinter [1, 2].
• Nine outlaw caves by Kildozery, LilianaUnfolded, aveno, Shadowhawk_the19th and Aureant333, Shadowhawk_the19th, kwigdulah, CdoubleOK, Pateepa, and Ragox (last one still in development).
• Seven non-NPC caves: two parastylus-infested caves by nuclearwinter and BarbedWireKisses, a Winged Twilight hideout by LilianaUnfolded, a hidden Ashlander burial by Dubba_D, a beast den by BarbedWireKisses, an Alit cave by nuclearwinter, and an Ogrim’s lair by shtou.
• Four water-logged grottos by CdoubleOK and nuclearwinter [1, 2], including a dreugh farming cave by CdoubleOK.

Same as with its exteriors, most of Roth Roryn’s interiors dated from an early time in our mod’s development with quite different quality standards.

The poor state of these interiors was oft-lamented among developers in the lead up to the release of Dominions of Dust, but given the scope of the issue and some planning hick-ups, we were never able to address this in a timely manner. Yet, in late 2023, our interiors team had pulled so far ahead of other departments that it became reasonable to address the issues, based on Vern’s painstaking triage conducted earlier in the year. While a few parts of this project are yet to be opened to development, the great bulk of the required interior overhauls and new interiors are done, though un-reviewed:

• The entirety of the large Vathras Plantation on the eastern edge of Roth Roryn was remade by Aureant333, Khazar, and Paramelia.
• The Grey Lodge, a tavern on the Armun Ashlands and Roth Roryn border, by Khazar.
• Neleni-Shalsar Tradehouse, a small tradehouse providing accommodation to miners in the foothills of the Velothi Mountains, by Aureant333.
• Six smallholder dwellings: Verano farmhouse by tranescendent, Alver farmhouse by Khazar, Nelam farmhouse by Kalinnikov, an alchemist’s hut by Aureant333, a fisherwoman’s hut by Deenday, and a hunter’s hut by Olórin.
• Two Velothi towers: Shalmurat by AverageRedoranEnjoyer – a covert Redoran outpost – and Elandad by Boznirith – an undead-occupied tower.
• Two Dwemer ruins: Leftunch, a large ruin mentioned in “Chronicles of Nchuleft” by Serpentbyte and Ngelfltingth, a frozen-over outpost in the high mountains, by nuclearwinter.
• Two daedric ruins: Veranzaris by Nirvayn – a Sheogorath shrine – and Ossurnashalit by Paramelia – a Molag Bal shrine.
• Litu-Dur Iron mine by nuclearwinter.
• Three Kwama egg mines by AverageRedoranEnjoyer, nuclearwinter, and nuclearwinter and Exovian (last one still in development).
• Eight Dunmer ancestral tombs by Paramelia [1, 2], Terrifying Daedric Foe, AverageRedoranEnjoyer, BarbedWireKisses, Frun1987, Karolus, and Sheoguarath.
• Seven outlaw caves by OuranOS [1, 2], SpottheCat, nuclearwinter, Khazar, and Paramelia [1, 2] (last one still in development).
• Seven beast dens by Vukov [1, 2], nuclearwinter, shtou, aveno, CdoubleOK, and ines_g (last one still in development).
• Three grottos by SpottheCat and Vukov, including a dreugh hive by Kildozery.

Of course, many interiors in the main Poison Song release area still remain to be done, pending the finalization of the exterior claims where they will be situated. After exteriors and interiors are complete, questing will become the focus here, but given that much of the area in this expansion will be wilderness, the needed density will be far smaller than for Grasping Fortune. We will likely offset that somewhat by bundling in some fixes and finalizations to Old Ebonheart’s faction questlines, giving us a nice opportunity to tie the Orethan and Sundered Scar regions into Old Ebonheart and Aanthirin gameplay.

Wealth Beyond Measure is the last installment in our House-Hlaalu-focused series of mainline expansions. It will round out the last section of southwestern Morrowind by including most of the Othreleth Woods region, a House Hlaalu agricultural heartland, as well as the northern spur of Shipal-Shin and the southernmost peaks of the Velothi Mountains. Aside from many other Hlaalu towns, its main focus will be the splendid Hlaalu city of Kragenmoor, which has recently begun to rival Narsis in trade and influence.

Wealth Beyond Measure has been in the works since 2021, too. For a little while, we intended to split the release into two: one focused on the smaller town of Andrethis, the other one on Kragenmoor. But that decision has now been walked back – perhaps in a fit of hubris driven by the excellent progress on the similarly-massive Grasping Fortune.

By now, over half of the exteriors and very many of the interiors are finished, much of it within the past year. Several larger pieces are still missing before questing can begin, however, including most significantly the cities of Kragenmoor and Andrethis.

Exteriors

Wealth Beyond Measure exteriors have been progressing slowly but steadily, and a number of the claims made it over the hump this past year. Most of the area covered by the release is in the Othreleth Woods region:

• Othreleth Woods 4 – a stretch of deep forest intersected by Veloth’s Path – was completed by Chef and then Blackbird, before being reviewed by Phenoix12.
• Othreleth Woods 9 by Fremennik and Osidian includes the Hlaalu village of Fervinthil and the ruined Redoran fort settlement of Ald Lambasi sitting in a bend of the Kanit river (reviewed by Chef).
• Othreleth Woods 8 by Saddboye and Silvone includes Narun, a Hlaalu village, and many plantations and farms (reviewed by Chef).
• Othreleth Woods 2 by Phenoix12 has an overgrown Reman Imperial fort from the First Era nestled in deep, dangerous woodland. While finished, it still awaits review.
• Othreleth Woods 6 by mojo187 has the Hlaalu village of Ilaanam as well as plantations and farms along the Kanit river. It is currently pending review.
• Othreleth Woods 10 by Wanax is deep, dense Othreleth mushroom forest, home only to bandits and dangerous ruins. It, too, is not yet reviewed.
• Othreleth Woods 3, which has the town of Hla Rud on Veloth’s Path, was first developed by S’Wit (DarkKnightComes), but is now being completed by Galrom.
• Othreleth Woods 7 by Gnomey and Silvone, holding the recently finalized town of Andrethis, is pretty far into development, but not yet complete. Andrethis, an industry town, is the second largest settlement in the release, roughly comparable in size to Balmora.
• Last is Othreleth Woods 1, containing the city of Kragenmoor itself. This will be surrounded by a sub-region, the eponymous moor, combining assets from the Velothi Mountains and Othreleth Woods proper. After literal years of chipping away at the city and surroundings, Nemon recently handed the claim off to Chef, who has been streamlining the city.

An important part of the expansion is comprised of the northwestern part of the Shipal-Shin range. Work on these exteriors has progressed even further:

• Shipal Shin 14 by Blackbird was already reviewed by mojo187 for the last progress tally, but has since been merged into our Wealth Beyond Measure section file. The area is mostly wilderness next to the Cyrodiil border, although a group of Shinathi make their home there.
• Shipal Shin 12, containing the mining town of Reluran on the transition to the Othreleth Woods, was made by Chef (reviewed by mojo187).
• Shipal Shin 15 by Kaiel and mothpot is a slice of particularly remote canyons closest to Cyrodiil (reviewed by Cicero).
• Shipal Shin 11 by Sevenup243 and Pickles is a large wilderness claim with a dramatic rise in elevation (reviewed by mojo187).
• Shipal Shin 16 on the transition from Shipal-Shin to the Velothi Mountains was, in truth, finished a long while ago by Phenoix12, but got recently updated to our new Velothi Mountains environmental assets. The claim contains the Hlaalu town of Salvelis. It remains in need of review.
• Shipal Shin 13, containing a large drumpear plantation, was almost finished in June 2023 by Tombomb47 and Cookiemonster16, but Chef polished off the last bits a couple of months later. It now awaits review.

A few chunks of the Velothi Mountains will also feature in the expansion. This area still needs some work:

• Shipal Shin 17, an area of mostly high peaks that also contains a bit of the transition to Shipal-Shin, was recently finished off by LogansGun (reviewed by Cicero).
• Velothi Mountains 2 will be next in line by LogansGun. The currently unfinished claim will host Shadowgate Pass – the busiest border pass between Cyrodiil and Morrowind – and was recently expanded towards the north, where it will fill in an ugly gap on our map.
• Velothi Mountains 1, containing the source of the Kanit river, had some more work done on it by Nemon.

The above claims are all that is needed to get Wealth Beyond Measure exterior-complete, and none are too far from being done. If steady progress continues, this quadrant of the Morrowind map may be filled in very soon indeed.

Interiors

As with Poison Song, the hungry interiors team was ready to gobble up new lands as soon as our interior reviewers were able to plan out the locales for newly finished exteriors. As a result, many settlements are nearly interior-complete, as are large sections of wilderness, although reviews have only just begun.

The biggest news here is the very recent near-completion of the Balmora-sized town of Andrethis, a blue-collar industry town in the heart of the Othreleth Woods. With the layout complete, Mark and Silvone were able to plot out its many interiors and let level designers have at it. Many interiors are already done, though none are yet reviewed:

• A prosperous Fighters Guild was quickly made by Cream Sandwich.
• The town’s alchemist was finished by nuclearwinter.
• Residences for a fisherman by Tomix, and a strider operator and big game hunter, both by AverageRedoranEnjoyer, are done.
• The Camonna Tong Council Club received some work by Karolus but is now awaiting a new claimant.
• A Camonna Tong warehouse has received progress by Donnerino.

In terms of smaller settlements, Fervinthil is a Hlaalu fishing village in the Othreleth Woods by the Kanit river. All of its interiors are complete, but most remain pending review:

• Governor’s Manor by S’wit and Cream Sandwich. As well as running the local mine and fishery, the governor hosts nobles who want a break from the hustle and bustle of cities.
• River and Rover tavern by Tim Stonks, a relaxed place frequented mostly by locals, though the publican dubiously claims it to be the place where the Tribunal met with Prince Juilek and reached an agreement to end the Four-Score War.
• Fishery by Fremennik, the lifeblood of the town (reviewed by Osidian).
• Basic tradeshop by Cream Sandwich.
• Apothecary by Aureant333.
• Guard tower by LilianaUnfolded (reviewed by Osidian).
• Three residences by OuranOS [1, 2] (both reviewed by Osidian) and SpottheCat (reviewed by Osidian).

The other small fishing village of Narun just to the south of Fervinthil is also complete, and Vern just recently managed to review all of it:

• Governor’s manor by ymAtarax1A.
• Well-frequented tavern by Karolus.
• Alchemist’s shop by Aureant333.
• Outfitter’s shop by Karolus.
• House of a prominent writer by Kildozery.
• A guard tower by Cream Sandwich.
• Several common residences by Cream Sandwich, Sheoguarath, Karolus, Deenday, and Pateepa.

Aside from the towns and villages, the Othreleth Woods is packed with various ranches, farms, and plantations. The largest of those is the Narusa winery, home to the second-most powerful Hlaalu councillor after Athires Hlaalu himself. All except one of the interiors here are already finished and have even been reviewed (the latter all by Vern).

• The winery, where comberry is brought to be fermented and turned into Shein and Greef by Fremennik.
• Storage building by Khazar.
• Two guard towers by Deenday and Donnerino.
• Staff lodgings by Khazar, LilianaUnfolded, and Shadowhawk_the19th.
• The only piece still remaining in development is Narusa’s opulent Manor, which Osidian is working on.

Many other, smaller farms and ranches in the Othreleth Woods are done, and some even reviewed:

• Manor for a Hlaalu noble by nuclearwinter.
• Six farmhouses for kuj pod, hackle-lo, corkbulb, and comberry farms by Khazar, Dubba_D, nuclearwinter, Slowchu, SpottheCat, and tranescendent.
• Three netch and guar ranches by Donnerino (reviewed by Peter), nuclearwinter, and Kalinnikov.
• Two slave shacks by Paramelia (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff), and R.R.S.S.K (reviewed by Denis418).
• Two farm storage shacks by Machiawelli and Terrifying Daedric Foe.
• Abandoned farmstead by Silvone.

More dangerous locations can be found in the Othreleth Woods wilderness. Those in this category are generally finished, but all are unreviewed:

• The stronghold of Amadsaron by Osidian, occupied by a Hlaalu noble on the run.
• Four daedric ruins: a Molag Bal shrine by LilianaUnfolded, a Sheogorath shrine by Terrifying Daedric Foe, a Malacath shrine by AverageRedoranEnjoyer (still in development, waiting for a new claimant), and a large ruin combined with a goblin cave being worked on by Cicero.
• Three Velothi towers: one occupied by dissident priests by CdoubleOK, one by conjured enemies by Dubba_D, and one by a tribunal-worshipping hermit.
• Four mine-related interiors: Fervinthil’s Kwama egg mine by AverageRedoranEnjoyer (still in development), an associated mine storage by Tiglath-Pileser III, another medium egg mine by Tomix, and a dried-up amethyst mine – the last one previously worked on by Cream Sandwich, but now unclaimed.
• Ten Dunmer ancestral tombs, including the large, rich, and still in-development tomb for the Hlaalu Fifth Family by CdoubleOK, the similarly sized, but less well maintained Hlaalo ancestral tomb (i.e. the Hlaalu Fourth Family) that’s awaiting completion by Tim Stonks, and many less significant ones by Dubba_D, Frun1987, Tomix Terrifying Daedric Foe, OuranOS, Karolus, Paramelia and LilianaUnfolded, and Boznirith (last one still in development).
• Three outlaw caves by Dubba_D, Machiawelli, and nuclearwinter.
• Two beast dens by OuranOS and SpottheCat.

Moving on to the Shipal-Shin part of Wealth Beyond Measure, the only large settlement currently under development in this region is the prosperous mining town of Reluran. All interiors are complete, though un-reviewed:

• A small Tribunal Temple by aveno.
• A small Guild of Mages hall by Kildozery.
• Farmers and Laborers Hall by Machiawelli, where the respective Tong upkeeps a feed store and storage facility for farmed goods.
• Tanners and Miners Hall by Boznirith, serving essentially as a union hall, as well as an appraisal office for gems.
• A busy tavern by AverageRedoranEnjoyer.
• A respectable clothier’s shop by Khazar.
• A well-off armorer’s shop by Khazar.
• A fletcher’s shop by Toma400.
• A shady pawnbroker’s shop by Lamberthassel.
• A general goods tradehouse by ymAtarax1A.
• The governor’s manor by Karolus.
• Four guard towers by Evil Eye, shtou, LilianaUnfolded, and Nirvayn.
• Residences by Donnerino [1, 2], Aureant333, Deenday, Kalinnikov, Khazar, and TheWorldMap.

Outside of town, only a couple of mines and plantations struggle to survive in the northern part of Shipal-Shin. All listed are finished, but pending review:

• Faravel Plantation, a small drumpear venture, by Exovian and Tim Stonks.
• A medium-sized Amethyst mine just outside of Reluran by Tim Stonks.
• A large and active Kwama egg mine near a crossroads inn by Tim Stonks.

Where Shipal-Shin lacks in settled peoples, it makes up for it in Shinathi tribes. Three make this area their home: the standoffish Hunza clan, known for their martial prowess, the friendly Ayahali, who live in the most isolated part of the region, and the traditionalist Shakhal clan. Interiors for the Hunza are all reviewed; others are still awaiting review:

• Eight Hunza tents made by Cream Sandwich [1, 2] (reviewed by Tim Stonks and Vern), aveno (reviewed by Vern), Vukov (reviewed by Vern), and ymAtarax1A (reviewed by Vern).
• The Hunza’s hidden loot stockpile by Cream Sandwich (reviewed by Vern).
• The Hunza kwoom breeding cave by Cream Sandwich (reviewed by Vern).
• Eight Ayahali tents by WhoKnows, Donnerino, Olórin, and LilianaUnfolded.
• Fort Norad, a ruined watchtower of the Second Empire now used by the Shakhal for storage of stolen and smuggled goods, by obie dwyer.
• Two tents for Clan Shakhal by Olórin and Deenday.
• The Shakhal’s Kwoom breeding pool by Ataemus, still in-development.
• A cave occupied by Shakhal exiles by Pateepa.
• The tent of an unaffiliated Shinathi bandit by Toma400 (reviewed by Vern).

The Shipal-Shin backcountry will be filled mostly with dangerous, high-level dungeons:

• Three daedric ruins: a Mehrunes Dagon shrine by Tim Stonks (reviewed by Vern), a small Molag Bal shrine by ymAtarax1A (pending review), and another small one for Malacath – the last one received some progress by ines_g, but is awaiting a new claimant.
• The ancient Chimeri stronghold of Telasmayn, now occupied by a group of hostile conjurers, by CdoubleOK [1, 2, 3, 4]. Pending review.
• Two Velothi towers: one occupied by hostile Shinathi bandits by Terrifying Daedric Foe (pending review) and another by Buoyant Armigers by Cream Sandwich (reviewed by Tim Stonks).
• Two Dunmer ancestral tombs by Shadowhawk_the19th (reviewed by jackimoff wackimoff), and Kildozery (still in development).
• Four outlaw caves by Cream Sandwich (reviewed by Vern), ines_g, Terrifying Daedric Foe, Tim Stonks (three prior ones pending review), and Khazar (last one partly done, awaiting a new claimant).
• The den of a terrifying Canyon Thresher – a creature earlier called the “Horned Butcher” and made by Kaitou, Alexander7070, and GrumblingVomit – by Cream Sandwich (reviewed by Vern).
• A feral kwama cave is being made by MinerMan60101.

A precious few new interiors have been made for the remote Velothi Mountains, too, all pending review:

• Large Dwemer ruin by Cream Sandwich.
• Smuggler-occupied Velothi tower by Cream Sandwich.
• Small ancestral tomb by Aureant333.
• Troll and kobold-infested cave by Cream Sandwich.
• Wild hunting hound den by nuclearwinter.

As seen, not a trivial amount has been done for Wealth Beyond Measure, and interior reviews are starting to roll in. Things are on a good trajectory for our questing team to pivot there without much delay, once Grasping Fortune and Poison Song are out of the door. The smaller towns, once reviewed, may soon be opened up to NPC and dialogue additions. For this pace to continue, however, exterior developers and interior reviewers are racing to open interior claims in the city of Kragenmoor, as outfitting such metropolis tends to be a multi-year effort. At least our interior developers, always starving for “civilized” interior claims, would be quite happy.

Now moving on to our newest, furthest expansion to enter development, which will finally take us back to Redoran lands. Development on the Redoran will start with the region of Clambering Moor and their first expansion will potentially also include the Grey Meadows to its north, the two regions corresponding to the northern half of the Redoran Stones March and the Ashes March, respectively. Redoran lands as a rule will be less densely settled than Hlaalu ones, but more heavily defended, due to threats from Orcs and Nords. Its main foci will be the fortress cities of Veranis in Clambering Moor and Silgrad in Grey Meadows. Off to its west will be the large valley of Malahk-Bazul, outside of both Redoran and Imperial rule, that the hostile Malahk orcs make their home.

This expansion is a return to Redoran of sorts, as our older fans will remember that Tamriel Rebuilt already finished most of the exteriors for House Redoran lands (i.e. the Velothis district) in the years between 2010 and 2015. As happened, however, our polishing and questing workflows were not able to keep up at the time. Development focus moved towards southern Morrowind, and as the years went, our quality expectations for exteriors moved past what was done in Velothis a decade ago. Hence, we are starting over with these lands, now with fully unique asset palettes and a different, more vanilla-friendly approach to exterior style.

Exteriors

Clambering Moor exteriors were opened for development in early Spring 2024, after years spent gathering the required environmental assets – all this largely coordinated by Chef, with help from many others. Exterior developers were obviously enthused for a break from Hlaalu, as is evidenced by the speed by which the claims were gobbled up:

• Clambering Moor 5 was quickly finished by Pickles and has already been reviewed by Silvone, allowing us to start the Clambering Moor section file, into which completed exteriors, interiors, and eventually quests will be merged. This one was a simple coastal wilderness claim pocked by ancient Nord barrows, strongholds and Dwemer ruins.
• Clambering Moor 4 by Cookiemonster16 is receiving a final coat of polish by Ajer. Another coastal claim, it contains the sleepy fisherfolk’s shack village of Hainat Gan.
• Clambering Moor 3 is the transition from the Roth Roryn region to Clambering Moor, and contains the lower course of the Roryn and Priyai rivers. It was largely made by Nirvayn, with Ajer now working on finishing it.
• Clambering Moor 9 is close to completion by LogansGun. It is mostly comprised of mountain peaks and ridges rising above the Clambering Moor on the border between Redoran controlled lands and Malahk-Bazul.
• Clambering Moor 2 focuses on Malahk Pass, the main route to Malahk-Bazul, heavily guarded by the Redoran. Osidian has just about completed it, though polishing remains.
• Clambering Moor 6 has been brought almost to the finish line by Donnerino, but is now handed off to Pickles for the final bits. It contains the small Redoran village of Rhanim, as well as a few isolated farms.
• Clambering Moor 1 holds Veranis, the largest town in the region and the locus of faction quests. Guarded by stout walls and steep hills, it acts as a bulwark against the Orc threat. Chef made quite a bit of the claim originally, but then handed it off to Pickles to finish, who has done a lot of work on the city.
• Clambering Moor 8, is a wilderness area in the north of the region, rising to meet the Velothi Mountains. Aside from isolated farms, it contains only dungeons. Sevenup243 has made some initial progress in filling out the claim.
• Clambering Moor 7 is a large wilderness claim being made by Silvone, which holds the main road from Veranis to Silgrad and Blacklight.

To the west of the Moor lies the thickest belt of the Velothi Mountains, including the dreaded valley of Malahk-Bazul. Compared to the area released with 2022’s Dominions of Dust, the region has received a new coat of paint in the form of a unique asset palette, which will serve to make it more memorable. The Velothi Mountains, too, have received some progress, though not quite as much as the Moor:

• Velothi Mountains 3 by Phenoix12 is the first one to be completed, and is now pending review. The southern tail of the Malahk-Bazul valley, it contains a long-abandoned pass to Nibenay and a couple Malahk Orc outposts.
• Velothi Mountains 5 comprises the high, nigh-unpassable border mountains with Cyrodiil, as well as Malahk Orc outpost built into a Dwemer ruin. LogansGun has made some initial progress on it.
• Velothi Mountains 4 is a sloping area of the valley with Orc camps and several ruins that Nemon has started work on.
• Velothi Mountains 6 comprises the heart of the Malahk-Bazul valley, with the largest Malahk orc outpost and ruins of the various bordering regimes that have tried and failed to establish control over the region. After some initial work by Pickles, Phenoix12 took it upon himself to finish it.

Interiors

With the completion of the first exterior claim, and with interior developers just as happy for a rest from Hlaalu as the former department, the first interior claims were organized by Aveno and quickly completed, although reviewers will likely not get to these any time soon:

• Artchuand, a small Dwemer ruin, by Terrifying Daedric Foe.
• Hunter’s tent by Tomix.
• Medium-sized Dunmer ancestral tomb by bDacc.
• Wild hunting hound den by Tomix.
• Kobold cave by Tomix.
• Small dreugh grotto in the Inner Sea by Khazar.
• Slaughterfish grotto by nuclearwinter.
• Nord barrow from the First Nord Empire by slyeye (still in development).
• Mandaryon, a Chimeri stronghold contested between marauders and rogue wizards, by Tim Stonks (still in development).

House Redoran is, therefore, off to a good start, although it is low on our priority list for now. Work on environmental assets for the Grey Meadows region to the north continues, so it’s possible we’ll open that section of the Velothis district quite soon. When that is done, about half of Redoran lands will already be in development!

Lastly, we’ll take a look at progress towards our handful of Sea of Ghosts islands. Now, remember that these aren’t meant to stand as a separate expansion on their own. Rather, as each of the following items creeps toward completion, we intend to bundle it with whichever expansion is coming next.

Leviathan Isles (placeholder name) are a group of small islands to the North of Sheogorad and host to the ruined imperial Leviathan Keep, where Empress Kintyra II’s consort died during the War of the Red Diamond. Once the last interior gets finished, it will need a few quests. Eventually, it is also intended to tie into larger, pan-Morrowind questlines.

• Chef reviewed the exterior of the isles that Cicero had completed earlier in 2023 and merged it into a section file.
• CdoubleOK made the interior of Leviathan Keep itself, once an important stronghold of the North Navy, but now abandoned for three centuries (reviewed by Cicero).
• LilianaUnfolded made Inghal barrow, the resting place of an infamous Nord reaver who conquered Sheogorad in the First Era (reviewed by Cicero).
• HospitallerInaBoat and nuclearwinter made progress on the wreck of the TEM Emperor Antiochus, one of Kintyra’s navy galleons that was lost in the sack of Leviathan Keep, but it is now awaiting a further claimant.

Vounoura, a semi-mythical island north of peninsular Telvannis that is thought to be connected to the Morag Tong. It is host to a major Daedric ruin dedicated both to Mephala and Sanguine. The exterior of the island was already finished by last year, but new additions were made in the meanwhile. A few more quests are all that is needed still.

• Cicero added a tiny island to the Padomaic Ocean for the purpose of Sanguine’s quest. It was later reviewed by Chef.
• The island’s Deadric ruin interior was also made by Cicero and reviewed by Vern.
• Cicero finally made a really neat, voice-acted Daedric quest for Sanguine with help from MAJ-12 MEDIA and beninate, which was reviewed by FlinSunset.

Among the three listed here, Olanar is the island that has been in development for the longest. The island lies to the east of Port Telvannis and was once occupied by a reclusive Telvanni mage that has since passed on. A major quest is intended to take place here, as three factions seek to recover a treasure from Pyandonea. Most of what is needed before the central quest can be opened for development is a series of Maormer cultural assets, several of which are actively being developed. Most of the progress this past year was in finalizing all the interiors of the island and merging them into the section file:

• An isolated shipwreck by christixn was reviewed by Mark many years ago but was merged just a little while ago.
• The same was the case with Vadridan, a Velothi tower made by Osidian and reviewed by Mark in early summer last year.
• Shaav grotto by RDV was, on the other hand, reviewed by Denis418 and Cicero in August 2023, just after the previous progress tally.
• Tel Inan, the abandoned Telvanni tower, was made by Taniquetil, Mark, and WhoKnows and was the last one to be completed on the island (reviewed by Cicero).

All three need just a little push to cross the finish line, so hopefully we will see at least a couple of them finalized and packaged into the next expansion soon enough.

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And now, more than 15000 words later, that covers more or less all that the Tamriel Rebuilt team has done on the implementation side since July 2023 – the work of more than 100 different volunteers! Bear in mind, we didn’t even cover the huge effort of bugfixing and a thousand little consistency tweaks, nor the less visible work of organization and conceptualization. Nor did we touch upon texture and 3D model creation in this news post, which are perhaps the most sought-after skills in the project and its most significant bottlenecks – rest assured, work on that front has not slowed down, either.

If any of this inspired you, please download the mod and check it out for yourself or come join us on our Discord server, to see our open development and Denis418’s much more frequent development updates.

Even more, if you’d like to help us bring Morrowind to life faster, consider joining us. TES III modding has always been easy to pick up, and is now even more so, thanks to new tools like the Construction Set Extender and our ever-improving documentation. Most of our developers had no prior modding or game development experience prior to starting here – yours included.

Now, until next time!