This is mostly just a homage to a custom character in an Elder Kings save that I'm enjoying. If you guys don't want to use it, I might make a submod someday instead.
Borana Vando is a battlemage and Telvanni spellwright or wizard who lives somewhere in Telvannis, perhaps even has her own tower in the southwest. If you talk to her about her background, she will mention that her family's history with the Great House goes back centuries, with at least two of her ancestors serving as Archmagister in the Second Era. She will then observe that you look like a well-travelled type who can handle themselves and ask if you're up for running a little errand to her ancestral tomb for her, unlocking a dialogue option to start the quest.
She will tell you that the first of her ancestors to serve as Archmagister was named Xiomara Vando, and under him there was an Ashlander Telvanni master, Ashurbanipal Zaintashara. Master Zaintashara was a very skilled enchanter and friend of Archmagister Vando, but was consumed by grief when his wife died. So great was his grief, he turned over his tower to their children and withdrew from house politics, resuming wandering as he had before joining the House. Not wishing to see his dear friend reduced to a vagabond, Archmagister Vando housed him in a secluded part of Port Telvannis, complete with a fully furnished workshop where he hoped his old friend would be able to work through his grief.
In thanks, Zaintashara enchanted a daedric katana for the Archmagister, pouring all his grief and depression into the process. The end result was Zaintashara's Grief, with drain stamina, drain magicka, and frost damage enchantments. Now buried with the Archmagister in the Vando Ancestral Tomb (south of Helnim, near Vallen-Dun Egg Mine - since members of the Vando family are scattered throughout Morrowind this could be a pretty big ancestral tomb, with a myriad of varied grave goods reflecting the varied lives of the family members interred there), Borana thinks this sword should be given back to the creator's descendants, since it is such a deeply personal creation of his (or so she will tell you).
Once you retrieve the katana (and possibly, have to fight an undead Archmagister for it) and begin looking for Ashurbanipal Zaintashara's descendant, you will find that, conveniently enough, they will be a Telvanni master (likely one on the Tel Muthada council who isn't an Ashlander, but whose Ashlander ancestry will be mentioned in rumours or something). They will express amusement that Borana thought such a bauble would entice them to back her efforts to get on the council, refuse the gift, and send you on your way.
Borana will be displeased at this development and it all having been a waste of time, but will offer to compensate you for your effort if you simply put the katana back in her ancestral tomb. You can agree, and be paid a few thousand gold, or declare that you'll keep the katana as payment, which she may or may not accept depending on what level you are, how famous, etc.
2019-08-25 19:28
6 hours 19 min ago
This is a neat story for a quest, but likely something you'd have to implement yourself as a personal mod. Many such exist for Tamriel Rebuilt already.
If you hoped to pitch this idea to TR -- apologies, but we don't really solicit quest ideas, unless you are willing to learn to put it in the game yourself. All our writing is expected to be paired with implementation in the Construction Set, since if you aren't familiar with the technical side, it is very easy to come up with a quest idea that is nightmarish to implement. But also because other quest devs tend not to be very motivated to work on other people's quest ideas if they are so detailed and personal as yours.
Overall, ideas are not the bottleneck of these mod projects; rather it is implementation. We have way more ideas than we can ever hope to implement. Hence, if you wanna leave a mark on the mod, I'd suggest you try to learn to use the Construction Set and make a quest showcase. Thankfully, the CS is very easy to learn; we have great tutorials here: https://wiki.project-tamriel.com/wiki/Category:Modding
2023-07-26 14:05
2 months 1 week ago
I've dabbled in modding Morrowind before, it certainly seems like less of a hassle than modding Skyrim. I might just do that - I've identified a site for Tel Vando east of Tel Gilan and it wouldn't be very big. Just need to reinstall Morrowind first. Going through the rigmarole of reinstalling everything is daunting, but I'm feeling kinda motivated now lol
2023-07-26 14:05
2 months 1 week ago
So I've been working on this for the last few days and am essentially just curious what you think of what I have so far.
Tel Vando is now Tel Suren, and I've been putting it together in a rocky outcropping north of Andar Mok. There will be two sort-of interlinked quests given here, the Ancient Friendship quest largely as I described above (although I've refined a few ideas since then), and a quest from the captain of Tel Suren's handful of guards, where he will have you track down an enchanted amulet stolen during the looting and burning of the Vandos' old tower, and then track down the original seller - completing this quest first will affect the reward received from Xiomara's ghost when you return Zaintashara's Grief to him in the main quest (of the two).
Tel Suren has 4 interior cells - the Guard/Gatehouse (manor pod with door markers sticking out of it), Orcantar's House (far housepod), the Slave Shack (near housepod), and the main tower - and will be inhabited by 11 or 12 NPCs - Borana and her son Vahram, Beleria Delmeni (used to be Borana's mother's mouth), Orcantar (exile from Balfiera and the aforementioned guard captain who will offer the second quest), Imlarnor (Bosmer slave overseer, used to serve Nisa but was among the retainers Nisa let go after he started working more with the Fighters Guild, you can see him on the near platform in the screenshot), 2 slaves: Wuteeka and Ku'val, and 4 or 5 guards who either survived the destruction of the old tower or have been poached from the senile Master Nisa.
Tel Suren in many ways reflects it's mistress: guarded, low-profile, watchful, but also with a certain grandiosity, having been grown explicitly to try to capture as much of the splendour of the old burned tower as circumstances allowed.