I've finished the book on Dwemer Ruins, and I've also finished the map book to my satisfaction. I redid all of the region maps, because the old ones looked kind of crap. I lovingly traced the original game map. It also has a new cover.

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Dangerous Places and How to Avoid Them!
Volume VI: Vvardenfell
by Ansel the Craven Adventurer

In my previous volume, I talked about the Morrowind mainland and all the places you should avoid there. This volume is dedicated to the island of Vvardenfell, and boy is it a doozy! There's dwemer ruins and daedric shrines everywhere, and they're very hard to avoid indeed. You practically trip over them in the roads! There's over 30 daedric shines and at least 20 dwemer ruins in Vvardenfell alone. That's enough to get you seriously dead several times over if you're not careful.

I would normally recommend not going to Vvardenfell at all, because it's a seriously wild and dangerous place, but sometimes you just can't avoid getting shipped off somewhere away from the comfort of your own home. I spent some time in Vvardenfell a few years ago, and I managed to avoid most of the dangers, so it's entirely possible to survive a trip there. All it takes is some careful investigation. For example, if you're in a town, ask the locals if there's a shrine or ruin nearby nearby. They'll be sure to tell you to keep well away from the place. After all, they've spent their entire lives avoiding those places, because those who don't, don't have the rest of their lives to spend now do they?

Other places to avoid in Morrowind include: the Dunmer strongholds, which look nice and peaceful from the outside but are usually full of creepy cults and bandits; Velothi towers, which is some kind of old style tower that only evil necromancers like to hide in nowadays; and there are also lots and lots of tombs and caves. One word of advice: never ever go into a tomb or a cave, especially anywhere in Morrowind. The Dunmer like to summon their ancestors to guard their tombs. What this really means is it's full of horrible ghosts and skeletons that will attack you should you ever set foot in one. Most caves are full of bandits, because that's where they like to hide, and they don't like being found. Do you know what they do when they're found? They kill you, that's what, so just stay away from caves altogether. If you get caught in the rain and need to find shelter, sometimes it's just better to let yourself get drenched.

The best way to survive in Vvardenfell is to stay in the cities and towns, above ground and not anywhere near any sewers, and take the siltstrider to get from place to place. Unfortunately, sometimes you'll find you have to walk somewhere because there is no readily safe transport, because Vvardenfell is still really backwards that way and they don't even have horses. So my advice in previous volumes, such as the Cyrodil volume stating "ride, ride as fast as you can!" really doesn't apply here. If you're forced to walk anywhere, you really should stick to the roads as much as you can. But if you ever find you've gone down the wrong road or you've lost your path, here's how to spot all the dangerous places to avoid.

Daedric Shrines

The daedric shrines in Morrowind are all dedicated to the scariest daedric princes. I don't know why, but my guess is because the dunmer are some seriously twisted folk. They used to worship the baddest of the bad, perhaps because they were scared that they'd come to Nirn and mess up the place if they didn't. Anyway, the dunmer don't worship the daedra anymore, and now they're called the House of Troubles, because the Tribunal Temple recognizes that these princes are seriously evil. These shrines are still full of evil, from crazy worshipers to wild daedra, and they'll all kill you if you ever have the misfortune of meeting one.

I'll list the four daedric princes that have shrines in Vvardenfell so that you realize just how frightening they are:

Malacath:

This is the daedric prince of the spurned and the ostracized, the keeper of the Sworn Oath, and the Bloody Curse. He's supposed to have created the orcs, and plenty of orcs still worship him. Most orcs aren't very nice at the best of times, but the ones eating strange mushrooms and deep in the throes of Malak worship are the meanest of all. The horrible ogrim are his servants, and you may still see some of them stomping around in his shrines, that is if you're unlucky enough to get close to one.

Mehrunes Dagon:

This is the daedric prince of Destruction. He's associated with natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and fire. The dunmer are really familiar with this prince's sphere, since it's a harsh land with a huge volcano in the center of it, so they have good reason to be really afraid of this daedric prince. He has many daedric servants, like scamps, clannfear, and the dreaded dremora.

Molag Bal:

This is the daedric prince of enslavement, and is also known as the King of [censored]. He's also the prince of corruption and likes to cause wars. In other words, he's into some really bad stuff and his followers should be avoided at all costs. I think I read somewhere that he had something to do with creating vampires as well. The nasty daedroth are his servants, and thankfully you don't see them very often, unless you happen to accidentally fall through a hole in the ground and end up in a long lost daedric shrine. In which case, you're probably going to die, so be careful not to fall in holes.

Sheogorath:

This is the daedric prince of madness. He likes to lure people into madness by appearing as a harmless old man and confusing people. His servants are the Golden Saints, which are confusing too because they're so beautiful, but they're the most frightening and deadly daedra of them all. Not much else is known about him, but that's probably for the best. His followers are completely crazy. They might kill you, or they might not. It probably depends on the kind of mood they're in, but it's a good idea to stay away from them entirely just to be on the safe side.

Nearly all the shrines in Vvardenfell are dedicated to one of these four daedric princes. Only one of them, the Shrine of Azura, is worth visiting at all, but getting there is probably very dangerous as well, so I probably wouldn't bother trying if you value your life over seeing some musty old shrine that nobody even really worships anymore.

It's easy enough to spot a daedric shrine from a distance. They mostly look like stone ruins with tall spiny towers, unlike dwemer ruins, which are made of metal and have big pointed towers. dwemer ruins are not safe either, but they're safer than daedric ruins because the horrors are mainly contained inside. The first thing you'll notice as you approach a daedric ruin is that something is coming at you hurling balls of magic and roaring. If you are ever in the mountains and the rocks start to have strange patterns on them, look around, and once you've picked out the general direction of the ruin, run in the opposite direction as fast as you can!

Dwemer Ruins

Nobody really knows how the dwemer disappeared, but they left a lot of nasty things behind. Dwemer ruins can be spotted by their large pointed towers, and they were really good at working with metal, so their towers have a lot of great big metal bits and pipes stuck all over them. They're usually safe enough from the outside, but never ever step inside of a dwemer tower. They left their centurions guarding the place. They obviously set them to attack all intruders before they disappeared, and now that the dwemer are gone, there's no one left to tell these nasty machines to stop going around killing everything in sight.

I spoke to some crazy adventurer once, who told me there's all kinds of dwemer centurions. There's little spidery ones that like to shoot poison at you, there's bigger rolling ones that carry pointy swords, and there's huge nasty ones that have one great big whumping arm that will crush you dead in an instant. Many of these are still wandering around inside the ruins, because the dwemer were amazing engineers who built things that would last forever, which is really unfortunate for the rest of us still living on Nirn. There's also apparently dwemer ghosts wandering around their ruined cities, and they are really angry. These things like to hurl spells at you, and they're immune to most weapons.

My advice to anyone who comes across a dwemer ruin is to just keep walking. They're perfectly harmless so long as you don't ever go inside one. Think of them as a big trap, trying to lure you with its promises of fine dwemer loot, which you won't fall for because you're smarter than that.

Dunmer Strongholds

These strongholds are big. They're really big. They're big enough to hold enough members of evil death cults and bandits that they could form their own armies. Think of them as cities of pure evil. They even look evil. Dunmer strongholds are huge dark fortresses squatting on the ground like great big beasts that will swallow you up whole if you get too close to them. They look kind of like those big cantons in Vivec or Molag Mar, but more evil and menacing. The thought of an entire city of evil sends shivers up my spine. The people of Vvardenfell really need to get their act together and send in great big armies to clear these places out. Then they could turn them into great big fancy cities, with inns with huge marketplaces, and then Vvardenfell might actually be a nice place to visit for a change.

Unfortunately, that will probably never happen, so don't even go near a dunmer stronghold. They have great big platforms on the top that are usually occupied by nasty people who will kill you on sight. There's hostile people inside and out of these places. You probably wouldn't even make it to the door before they kill you. They could be bandits, or insane cultists, or even worse I hear tell. I've heard tales of people who've been turned into horrible monsters, and they worship an ancient evil dunmer called Dagoth Ur, who is supposedly sitting around Red Mountain planning the end of the world and causing all the blight that's been plaguing Morrowind.

Writing all this down gives me the willies, and I'm probably giving you the willies too, so I'm going to stop talking about this and move on to the next section.

Velothi Towers

You might be walking along the road and you see something that looks like one of those Tribunal Temples. You might say to yourself, "Hey I need a few more scrolls of Almsivi Intervention," (which are really handy in getting you away from horrible dangerous places that you might have accidentally stumbled upon) "I think I'll stop over and pick a few up!" Well don't be fooled. Tribunal Temples are only found in cities. Is this temple looking building in a city? No? It's in the middle of the wilderness you say! Well, don't go in there! It's not a temple at all, it's an ancient Velothi tower and it's full of skeletons and necromancers!

Ashlander Camps

The Ashlanders are probably nice people for the most part, but they really don't like other people very much. The people in the big Ashlander camps probably won't kill you. In fact, they'll probably trade with you for supplies. The small Ashlander camps, on the other hand, are full of outcast Ashlanders who like to rob and kill people who happen to pass by. If you are traveling though the Ashlands or the Grazelands and you see one or two yurts (those are the big tents they like to live in) or a couple people huddling near a fire, do not go near them! Alter your course so that you stay well away from their camps and try not to be seen by them. These people are almost 100% guaranteed to be hostile. They will not want to share their fire, or trade with you, or let you crash in their tent for the night. They will kill you and loot your corpse and leave your body for the rats to eat.

The Regions of Vvardenfell

Some of the regions in Vvardenfell are far more dangerous than others. Not even the roads are safe in some areas and they often lead to dead ends and really dangerous places. Here I will tell you which regions to avoid the most, and which are a little more safe to travel in. You can get to most places by siltstrider or boat for the most part. The siltstrider is a pretty safe, since the caravaners are all really good with a bow and shoot down all any cliffracers that try to attack their passengers from above. Boats are fairly safe as well, but make sure you don't ever put a single toe in the water. The oceans around Vvardenfell are full of slaughterfish and they will eat you alive!

The Ascadian Isles:

This is one of the few nice regions of Vvardenfell. There's plenty of safe roads, because there's a good Imperial presence here. There's lots of farms and plantations around here, and the towns aren't too far apart from each other. You might encounter the odd rat or nix-hound on the road, so bring a friend if you have to travel by foot. Those nix-hounds are pretty nasty, and you might encounter a few cliffracers, which are great big, squawking, flapping, death from above. You might also see great big floating things. These are called netches, and the big ones are harmless. Don't get close to the little ones though. Those are betty netches, and they're kind of mean.

The biggest city in Vvardenfell is here, which is Vivec. It's easy to get lost in Vivec, and the Underworks are pretty dangerous. Stay up above, and you'll be fine. The place is guarded well by Ordinators, but they're probably the meanest guards you'll ever meet, so try to stay well out of their way. Suran is smaller, but it's a much nicer town. It has some great inns and taverns. You can get to both by boat or siltstrider.

The Bitter Coast:

This place is mostly swamps, filled with rats, nix-hounds, mudcrabs, and cliffracers. Mudcrabs are kind of slow and stupid, so they're easy to run away from. They're usually carrying some pretty nasty diseases. Actually, most of the creatures in Vvardenfell are carrying horrible diseases, so the less contact you have with them the better. It's not as dangerous as some places, but it's still pretty nasty. Its only redeeming feature is that its fairly close to the nicer regions of Vvardenfell, so you can get away from there pretty quickly. If you get dropped off by boat in Seyda Neen from the mainland, make your way to Balmora or somewhere nicer as soon as you can. Seyda Neen has a siltstrider, so you can get away from there safely and quickly.

The West Gash:

This area is fairly nice in the south, but it gets kind of wild as you go further north. As you get near the mountains, you'll have to watch out for cliffracers. Most of the towns in this region have siltstrider transport, with the exception of Caldera, but they have a guild guide at the Guild of Mages, and another guide at the Guild hall in Balmora. It's probably the safest way to travel, so don't ever walk to Caldera. Balmora and Caldera are two of the safest cities in Vvardenfell. They have nice big walls and lots of guards to protect the place. Balmora has lots of good inns and taverns as well. You could live your whole life in Balmora and never have to venture anywhere dangerous at all!

The Ashlands:

This region is pretty dangerous. It's all mountains, and you know what that means? Cliffracers are everywhere! They even come into town sometimes, and the guards have to kill them before they carry off small children. The Ashlands is a great big barren land filled with ash storms and blight. I wouldn't recommend going there ever, but if you need to go to Ald'ruhn or some other town, they do at least have siltstriders that can take you there safely. Ald'ruhn is not a very nice place though. The Redoran are kind of unfriendly, and there's always horrible ash storms blowing through the place. Never ever travel by foot in the Ashlands. There's really nowhere worth going to that you can't get to by transport. Everywhere else is really dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

Red Mountain:

Red Mountain is all sealed off by the Temple, because that's where all the blight and other evil comes from. They built a giant fence around the place called the "Ghostgate" presumably because they're using the ghosts of their ancestors or something like that to power the magic fence and keep all the evil inside. It sits like a great big boil in the center of the Ashlands. Stay as far far away from this place as possible. Apparently the Tribunal Temple has a pilgrimage site at the Ghostgate, so I would suggest you stick to the Imperial Cult, which is much safer. At least they don't send you to the most evil place in Nirn to go have a looksee.

Molag Amur:

This region is just like the Ashlands, except with more mountains, boiling lava lakes, ash storms and blight. There is nowhere worth visiting in this region, except maybe Molag Mar, but this town has proper transport, so you can go there without ever setting foot in Molar Amur itself.

Azura's Coast:

This is all the eastern coastline of Vvardenfell, and it's dotted with lots of islands. There's lots of strange mushroom trees all over the place, and the crazy Telvanni build their houses out of them. Most of the towns around here are only accessible by ship, and they're all run by the Telvanni. The Telvanni is the Dunmer Great House full of ancient wizards, and they're all mad as loons, every one of them. They're not very friendly either.

The Empire built a fortress in their biggest city, Sadrith Mora, only because they had to because of the armistice or something. You can tell they don't really want to be there, and even the Imperial guards are too scared to poke their heads out of the fort and venture into the mad mushroom town. I traveled there once by guild guide, because there's a Guild of Mages in Wolverine Hall, and I even dared to venture into Sadrith Mora itself, because I was feeling really brave that day. Anyway, one of the Telvanni guards started yelling at me about a guest pass or something like that, so I ran back to Wolverine Hall as fast as I could and never ventured outside again for the whole trip!

The Grazelands:

This region is really pretty, but it's also one of the most dangerous regions of all. In a way, it's kind of like a golden saint. Really beautiful, completely deadly, but carries the finest loot you can imagine if you actually manage to survive an encounter with it. In other words, it's not for ordinary people like you and me. Only crazy wizards and heroes, and tough as nails Ashlanders, dare wander around a place like that. Its home to a lot of grazing animals, and by grazing animals, I don't mean fluffy sheep and docile cows. By grazing animals, I mean wild Guar, Alit and Kagouti, which are all great big bitey two-legged lizards of death. The Kagouti even have great big goring horns on their heads. If you ever find yourself face to face with one of these, run as fast as you can! Worse yet, there's apparently a ton of daedra just roaming around wild and out in the open around here!

There's no towns really worth visiting around here. Vos is just a poor farming village, and Tel Vos is a crazy wizard tower that only crazy people would want to visit.

A friend of mine once dared me to visit Tel Vos because he said I couldn't call myself an adventurer anymore if I refused to go on adventures. So I went to Tel Vos, because I heard that Master Aryon is one of the nicest Telvanni around, but in reality he's just as crazy as the rest of them. His tower is a big twisty-turny labyrinth, filled with angry ghosts and daedra and dwemer centurions that he built himself. I was attacked by a ghost so I tried to hit it, but then the guard got mad at me for hitting the ghost for some crazy reason, so I had to run. I never did get to meet Master Aryon, because he lives in a huge mushroom in the sky above the tower, and I never use levitation spells because I'm terrified of heights. I think I far prefer living in Cyrodil, because levitation is banned there.

Sheogorad:

This region is just a bunch of islands in the far north. There's a small Nord settlement there called Dagon Fel, but there's really not much to see there. The rest of the region is full of angry daedra, evil necromancers, and crazy hermits. It really lives up to its name, you know, being named after Sheogorath, the daedric prince of the looney bin. I can't think of a single reason for any sane person to visit the place.

And thus concludes my volume on dangerous places to avoid in Vvardenfell, which happens to be most of them. I hope you join me next time as I take you to far away places in the comfort of your own home and tell you where never to go. In my next volume, I will be visiting Valenwood, and not Solsthiem as I previously promised. I've heard a lot of stories about Solstheim and they're all bad, and I got my fill of Nords while visiting Skyrim, which is detailed in volume IV of my series, Dangerous Places and How to Avoid Them. I hear tell that Solstheim is a cold barren little island that's full of giant bears, wolves, and crazy naked Nords with pet wolves and bears. There's practically no civilized towns to speak of. Unless you've taken a post in the East Empire Trading Company, and are forced to go there, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I'm currently working on Cosmos, and I've included some book art.

Here's the cosmology of Nirn along with the planets. I took some liberties naming the unknown planets, since there's no reference for which one is which. I just made guesses based on the general descriptions of the Nine Divines. Mara is set to meet with Akatosh on her rotations, since she's his consort, and is also one of the planets that circles Nirn. The other planet that orbits Nirn is Stendarr, since he is also very close to mortal kind. The three dominion planets are in their proper places, and the rest I just kind of placed where it felt right.

The Cosmology of Aurbus

The next set of images are Dwemer star charts along with a key:

The Dwemer Star Map

Now I just need to finish writing the book. Now that the illustrations are done, I feel I have the basic cosmology down.

The book mainly deals with cosmology, and a bit of the history of the dawn era, but I could do a little bit on the nature of magic. It is magic after all, and not true physics, that drives everything in the TES universe.