Populating the ash swamp.

[Cicero]

Hey all, just a quick discussion. After exploring the Ash Swamp (Which was very impressive, congratulations to the people that made it), It reminded me of Murkwood from the hobbit when I read it a while back. And I was just wondering what creatures are going to be present here? Just to throw some ideas out there, whatever the darkest, most evil creatures Morrowind/TR have could be placed within this environment I'm thinking. Like Red Mountain, it would be a zone that only high level characters would be able to visit. Being very dark and mysterious that it is, it would attract or spawn dark creatures.

[arvisrend]

The Ash Swamp isn't going to be the most badass place around; it'll probably be populated with mostly natural creatures (which indeed have to be modelled first -- any good ideas?), nothing "dark" or otherworldly. It'll be fairly tough, though.

[Cicero]

I was thinking with Daedra (sort of like the Molag Amur Region). The Daedra have nothing to do with Molag Bal and Vivec unlike Ash creatures so they could possibly be placed in around there (Daedra that is - Atronachs and the like), and maybe creatures similar to the scalon from Shivering Ilse; there are some creatures I have seen in TR before that are like that but I cannot remember what they were called.

[Yeti]

Seeing Daedra populating wilderness areas like the Grazelands always bugged me on Vvardenfell. They aren't wild animals. The only places where they should show up are Daedric ruins and other specialized locations.

[Katze]

Ashen variants of Durzogs and Muspila's Swamp Troll creature maybe? They'd probably be weaker than the normal versions from living in such a toxic place.

[Yeti]

The Swamp Troll is meant for the Argon Jungle, I believe.

[Bero]

I liked deadra in Grazelands. It is land of telvanni (crazy wizards, backfired experiments and whatnot) after all. fire elementals are ok Ash lands on Vvardenfell but I would go with Cat here, maybe some evolved to this harsh place and therefore stronger.

[Nemon]

The Swamp Troll is meant for the Argon Jungle, I believe.

But ashen variants. Could fit, and for now the ash swamp is pretty much the only original swamp location we have.

[arvisrend]

What about the more tropical fauna: snails, crocodiles, reptils etc. -- or is this not weird enough?

No to Daedra. Pretty sure Bethesda spread them all around Grazelands because they were out of critters.

[Melchior Dahrk]

[url=http://ericthered1090.deviantart.com/art/The-Rut-347771857]Prolix-hound, cousin to the nix.[/url] Unlike the Nix which have become surrounded by dark myths of nightmare and ash-stupors, the Prolix are favored with being called the "unicorns of the mire" often being tied to tales of saving travelers lost in the fungal swamps of Western Morrowind.

[url=http://marktarrisse.deviantart.com/art/Swamp-Creature-286195976]Mysterious lizard creature covered in fungal growths.[/url]

Just throwing out ideas for fun. Toodles.

[Mwgek]

The second one for sure.

[Ashstaar]

Original creatures would be nice but of the ones available there is an Ashy Slug, Horned Scrib, and I think Spiders. Lore says that the Dunmer use spider silk to weave or bind their armor and this would be a great place for spiders as they are not found anywhere.

[Melchior Dahrk]

Lore says they use spider silk? I know an early dev comment says that they used blight moth silk; though he was more making fun of the fact that clothing in Morrowind does not take damage like armor... perhaps that is to what you refer.

I was also thinking of something like the fungslug, though bigger than a Kwama Forager would be nice.

The "Prolix-hound" could be rigged to the Nix-hound skeleton. And the fungal-lizard could probably be rigged to the parastylus. So, if we only had the models...

[Rats]

Any creature that inhabits the swamp should be covered with the same white mycelium that the plants of the region are for weirdness' sake. A slug would be nice (perhaps something quite large), provided it can swim so it can ambush the player from the swamp ponds.

[Ashstaar]

Spider silk? Yes. This page, seventh paragraph:[url]http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-morrowind[/url] This is lore to me.

[Melchior Dahrk]

Spider silk? Yes. This page, seventh paragraph:[url]http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-morrowind[/url] This is lore to me.

I also take the pocket guides as lore enough. Thanks for the reference, Ashstaar. I learned something new today. Though if spiders were to appear in this region, players would assume the white stringy stuff hanging about was spider silk itself, like in Mirkwood. I don't think that would be good. I'd be more inclined to have some exotically colored spiders in that new orange and red region.

[Rats]

Suggestions/concepts for the creature palette.

[img]http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y417/rats_tr/netch_fungus_zpseb40a600.png[/img]
[img]http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y417/rats_tr/eyestar_fungus_zps6192c5bf.png[/img]
[img]http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y417/rats_tr/durzog_fungus_zpseb505f7f.png[/img]

edit1: some sort of fungus engulfed undead/mutant humanoid would be totally awesome. The ash swamp does look like a post-apocalyptic biohazard site. call 'em Gray Marchers

edit2: Maybe we could have three-headed kwama?

[Yeti]

I'm unsure of whether the region is big enough to deserve special creatures, especially given how difficult they are to model.

[Telvayn]

Perhaps you could retexture [url=http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/22189/?]Melchior's Myconoids[/url] ([url=http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/100/images/22189-3-1237780366.jpg]either[/url] [url=http://static-1.nexusmods.com/15/mods/100/images/22189-5-1237780366.jpg]one[/url]) and flavor them as beings animated by the Swamps themselves?

[Rats]

I'm unsure of whether the region is big enough to deserve special creatures, especially given how difficult they are to model.

The concepts I threw together are relatively simple-to-implement retextures and 2d fungus meshes which anyone NifSkope-savvy could add. I personally think that the unique look of the Ash Swamps definitely warrants some unique fauna. And it's not that small.

[rot]

The region definitely *needs* creatures fitting its aesthetic & bio-...thing.

Also, I usually don't like retextures but that durzog looks really cool.

[Why]

That Durzog looks like it'll fit right in.

[gro-Dhal]

I like the netch best, but they're all really cool

[Gnomey]

I'm of two minds about the durzog. I had always assumed they were from Valenwood, and Tribunal dialogue seems to imply they are not from Morrowind, though nothing is ever clearly stated either way.

I do like the retextures. Among extant creatures that match the Ash Swamp, I think nix-hounds/nix-mounts would fit rather well. After all, it would be strange if all of the creatures in the Ash Swamp were endemic and not found anywhere else.