Expand Your Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Gaming Experience with the Mod Tamriel Rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt is a massive user created mod, or plug-in, for the Bethesda Softworks video game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Mods, or modifications, are additions to games that can vary from simple reskins (changing colours and patterns for example) of existing objects to mods that rival the complexity and size of the original game itself. Morrowind, and later games in the Elder Scrolls series, are specifically designed to make the creation of user mods much easier by providing toolkits designed to create, organise and publish them.

The aim of the Tamriel Rebuilt mod is to recreate the province of Morrowind in its entirety, not just the island of Vvardenfell, as seen in the official game, and the capital of Mournhold from the Tribunal expansion. The island of Solstheim, from the Bloodmoon expansion, is more influenced by the province (not the game) of Skyrim than that of Morrowind although it is part of the game and is located just off the north-western coast of the island of Vvardenfell. The game of Morrowind and both the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions are needed in order to play this mod.

The Scope of Tamriel Rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt is a multi stage project that originally started before the game of Morrowind was even launched, and has therefore been in progress for over ten years so far. The aim of the project is to create the rest of the province of Morrowind apart from Vvardenfell and Solstheim which were done in the official game and its expansions. The project has been going on for many years and has no official end, or completion, date.

Tamriel Rebuilt was originally divided into 6 map areas of which three have now been released, Telvannis, Antideluvian Secrets and Sacred East. Prior to the release of Sacred East, the release system was changed to be less specific to the original design maps and instead designed around a specific theme. Two further releases, predominately focussing around a city each, have since been added. The remaining five areas planned to be released are Almalexia, Heartland, Véloth, Narsis and Dres.

Some other maps covered an Oblivion project, which is now separate from Tamriel Rebuilt. This included the island of Stirk, now released, and the province of Hammerfell, which has been released as a work in progress as Hammerfell - The Eastern Grasslands.

Each new release of the mod now includes everything from the previous releases, so that Sacred East includes everything from both Telvannis and Antideluvian Secrets, as well as any updates and patches so that only one mod will need installing and then updating, rather than having to continually add more files.

Modding for Tamriel Rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt is a collaborative effort from over two hundred different modders, although not all of them were working on the project at the same time, as membership, and indeed leadership, has changed over the life of the mod.

Each map follows a process of Exteriors, Interiors, Quests, Objects and Sound in its construction. Anyone can apply to become a TR Modder on the Tamriel Rebuilt forums, but not everyone is accepted. Potential modders can attempt to join the project by posting examples of their work, whether it be from any of the categories which the project is divided into, in the Showcase forum on the Tamriel Rebuilt website. With the project being kept to a very high quality, applying to join does not necessarily mean that a potential modder will be accepted. Quest designers are in demand. Non-members can view some of the forums, but in order to view all of them joining the forums is required.[1]

Once accepted as a member of the team, a modder can attempt to claim parts of the project from any of the different sections. Claims can be revoked if the work is not finished in time or if a modder becomes inactive.

What's Added in Tamriel Rebuilt?

Each release has many new quests, but not all the quests are finished when a release is done. When a map is released, although the mapping is completed, the fleshing out is still in progress which includes the quests. Most of the quests from map 1, Telvannis, have been completed although a major quest is still to be added. The quests, and their related Non Player Characters (NPCs), are the last things added to each map thus, for example, map 3, Sacred East, when it was released only had a handful of quests although the places, locations and cities were present along with NPCs and shops.

Many new places, including cities, settlements, Dwemer (Dwarf) ruins, dungeons and tombs similar to those that would be found in Vvardenfell are included in each release. The construction, and the appearance, of cities and settlements varies depending on the who the settlement belongs to. Each Dunmer Great House, as well as the Imperial settlements and Dwemer ruins have, as on Vvardenfell, their own distinctive appearance.

As well as the places and quests there are new NPCs, items and books, the latter having additions to the lore of Tamriel as well as stories and further background. There are new spells, diseases and creatures, especially more types of Dwemer Centurions. One notable addition is spell books, similar to those from the official Oblivion plug-in. Each spell book looks like a normal in game book, and can be read as normal, but reading it will also teach the player a spell if they do not already know it. This is more in depth than the Oblivion plug-in, as spell books in that merely contain the spell with no additional text.

Recommended Mods

As mentioned earlier, Morrowind itself and the official expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, are required to actually play Tamriel Rebuilt. Other than that, the map expansion fix from the Morrowind Code Patch is a must, otherwise most of the mainland will not show up on the in game world map.[2]

Travelling to, from and Around the Mainland

Once the plug-in has been added, players can travel to the new areas from Vvardenfell by swimming, water walking or flying. There are currently no services such as boats or guild guides to transport the player directly to the mainland although the two teleportation spells, Almsivi Intervention and Divine Intervention, will transport the player to the mainland from parts of Vvardenfell, primarily along the eastern coast and islands, namely parts of the Sheogorad, Grazelands and Azura's Coast regions. The spells can also be used for transport back to Vvardenfell from the mainland.

Almsivi Intervention when used in Sadrith Mora/Wolverine Hall on Vvardenfell will transport the player to Ranyon-ruhn on the mainland. Divine Intervention in the region of Dagon Fel on Vvardenfell will provide transport to the mainland Imperial city of Firewatch.

Almsivi Intervention in the region of the Dwemer ruin of Kemel-Ze on the mainland will return the player to Molag Mar on Vvardenfell. Divine Intervention will transport the player to Wolverine Hall from Ranyon-ruhn.

It is also possible to reach the mainland from the city of Mournhold in the Tribunal expansion. The Argonian mage Effe-Tei in Mournhold will also transport the player to the mainland Imperial city of Firewatch rather than to Ebonheart on Vvardenfell.

Players can travel around the new areas using guild guides, who function just like they do on Vvardenfell, allowing instantaneous travel to certain destinations. There are a limited number of these, in the Imperial settlements of Bal Oyra, Firewatch and Helnim and the Indoril city of Akamora.

Other means of transport are by using boats and silt striders, as on Vvardenfell, and by river striders - river striders are a form of transport similar to silt striders, in that they are also large insects, but they travel on water rather than on land. The normal transport methods of walking or flying are of course still available. Walking the roads is in general not as dangerous to the player on Vvardenfell (or especially in Oblivion); it is even possible in places to walk for substantial distances without getting attacked by various unfriendly beings. The notorious Cliff Racers, which frequently mob players on Vvardenfell and make travelling, even by air, such an exciting proposition, are somewhat less common than they are on Vvardenfell.

Almsivi Intervention and Divine Intervention can also be used to travel around the mainland, as well as travelling to and from Vvardenfell

Room for Expansion

As well as the included places and the increase in land and locations included in the mod, all that new content provides other modders with plenty of space to add various, unofficial, mods to the mainland. It is always possible that such mods may conflict in the future with planned work on the official project though.

There are currently over 200 new quests, including some that are part of quest series, in Tamriel Rebuilt without even considering all the non-quest dungeons, ruins, caves and locations that are available to explore. This means that there are many hours of Morrowind gaming available simply by installing this mod.

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