Tel Rivus stands on the ancient Andvaryon stronghold. Let’s go through some of the main changes. Together with many other asset, interior, and exterior developers, several new unique buildings have been added and old ones reworked or reshuffled. Hence, as a side-project to his many contributions to the Dominions of Dust release, Taniquetil has spearheaded a project to bring these imperial outposts more in line with current standards and established lore. Together with the overly large imperial town of Bal Oyra to the north, this meant that Telvannis district had the largest and most conspicuous Imperial presence of any of the Morrowind districts - directly in conflict with vanilla TES III lore that labeled House Telvanni among the most xenophobic. Its design was difficult to navigate and its conceptualization - including its internal rivalries and the relationship with the Telvanni - was hazy. Furthermore, the lighthouse is “kitbashed” from 3D assets that clearly weren’t originally designed to be used as such.Ĭonversely, the town of Helnim, supposedly a much less important port, had in a development accident hugely outgrown its design size, outranking Firewatch by far in quest and interior count. Its Mages Guild is tucked in a cellar of the palace building, abutting the kitchens. Currently, Firewatch, a major district capital in TESI: Arena, is only a small and sparsely filled town by TES III standards. The old versions of Firewatch and Helnim have, in fact, been one of the main bugbears to newer Tamriel Rebuilt developers. Finding that the sparse and overly rectangular nature of Firewatch was the main obstacle to having the map look good, he decided to take matters into his own hands. The matter of Firewatch and Helnim came to a head when one of our developers, Taniquetil, tried to draw a new version of the in-game Firewatch map. Since at least the major reorganization in 2014-2016 there has been a strong and increasing emphasis on custom 3D assets on the one hand, and exterior/interior design more aligned with vanilla principles and lore on the other hand.
Hence, there is a large offset between the aspirations of these early modders and the current iteration of the mod team.
These developers, however, were greatly hampered by the then-lack of affordable 3D modelling software and by the burden of developing their mod at a time and in a community that was largely preoccupied with probing the more - uh - eclectic aesthetic possibilities of TES III modding. Players have been able to enjoy the fruits of their work for the past decade and a half. In the early to mid 2000s, Tamriel Rebuilt developers made the hugely successful effort of conceptualizing and building the eastern district of Telvannis. Volunteers have come and gone, bringing ever-improving quality and aesthetic standards. Tamriel Rebuilt is nearly two decades old and has been in constant evolution through all this time. But why even revisit these areas? Have they not been done for decades already? Why not direct this effort to new lands? Let's dive into the motivations here.
Included in the expansion will also be a major update to the island of Althoa (formerly Balvvarden) and the hamlet of Bal Oyra. The areas of Tamriel Rebuilt touched by Embers of Empire.Īs you can see on the above map, EoE will include a near-total overhaul of the city of Firewatch, initially released in 2006, as well as the town of Helnim, first available to the public in 2008.