That's exact how I imagined Cyrodiil since the days of Arena...10 Years later the release of Oblivion destroyed that vision.

Thanks for those awesome pics

Everything Selbeth said, basically. I fully accept that the Oblivion version is now official lore, but personally I find the version described in the 1st PGE vastly more interesting, and I'd love to see someone try to recreate that. So I would go for option 3 - jungle/rainforest for the central, eastern and southern areas, and a more temperate climate for the Colovian north and west.

If the trees were denser in Oblivion it wouldn't be too different...

Are you kidding?

Not only the trees make the face off a landscape...it is the whole thing: trees, ferns, bushes, grass, plants, rocks and, and, and...

There is a big difference in foilage between a tropical rainforest and the generic environment we saw in TES4.

Look, original Lore is no longer valid.
Bethesda changed the Canon, and they can because we've never seen Cyrodiil before. I say its a Forest with some jungle.....like it is already in Oblivion.

That would be the purest way out

I'll read others posts in a moment, but for now:

I always thought of it as being a mix. Skyrim seemed like a northern area that the imperials had to deal with, and if the nords are any sign, it's obviously NOT a jungle out there. With that in mind, you also have to remember that the influence of the nords is somewhere far reaching even if they tend to live in outskirts and fringes. Many lands denote a light knowledge of Skyrim itself, for certain plants and what have you seem to have intermingled with most areas. (suggesting the nords are more influential than they take credit for)

Since OB wanted to make it obvious northern areas showed more signs of the nordic lands, and black marsh jungles in the south, it stands to reason that while some plants would be intermixed, the land you wish to create would need to be very diverse, showing both climates predominately under that basis, but having itself a little scrambled up.

The forests would be a bit more common, as the imperials would feel more at home in them, but the land should look increasingly like it is in danger of being swallowed by a jungle the more south you go.. once it is clear you are in the southern end, it show also be reflected in the area as you look at. Keep in mind that the argonians would feel more at home in these southern parts, so it would have to be a place where it seems like a beast could jump out of a pool or down from the trees and eat you whole. In the far north it should seem like the reverse, like the lands of skyrim are fighting to get some dominance there.. basically making the vast majority of cyodill feel as if it's a land caught in between, with veins of other climates occasionally poking through.

Keep in mind it needs to show those influences to explain why the imperials went from being more like druids to imperial roman types. They needed to fight at their borders often and survivalists turned into imperialists. I mean with lands like that around expansion would meaning fighting the wilds. That said, there is no reason their lands would not show the more pagan roots. Land crafts a people just as much as a parent.

In Morrowind, Daggerfall, Arena people talk about cyroidiilian forests as rain forests...It doesn't matter what Bethesda did later: Oblivion is later then Morrowind, in Morrowind people talk about a rainforests...so if this mod is a mod for TES 3 and not for TES5, Cyrodiil has to follow pre Oblivion Lore...otherwise also the dialogs need to be changed

Southern Cyrodil was pretty similar, lots of ferns and what not.

I don't hear of anyone talking about Cyrodiil in Morrowind?

Plus Oblivion Cyrodiil has swamps and stuff.......Leyawiin area. The entire southern part.

Also, the "generic landscape" stuff is just crap. What else you want? Its a forest.

Forests can be very diverse and unique instead of a similar sheme of automatically generated grass, flowers and plants in the most areas...If you think that Oblivion landscapes rock, it's your right to think that...to me it looks too boring

The heck with Oblivion's in-your-face lore breaking. Go with how the original world creators wanted it.

When I play a Morrowind mod, I want it to be a Morrowind mod. Not a mod that tries to recreate the travesty that is Oblivion.
(Yeah, I don't like Oblivion much, haven't played it for years...)

agree :goodjob:

^^ What he said.

i'd like heavy forest with thick underbrush. just shy of jungle. but given that cyrodiil is the heart of the empire. i would think there would be lots of roads and paths all through it. and signs of heavy foresting and clear cutting near the towns. for farming and such. and most forts would be cleared around as well. for field of fire, lack of cover. and to deny enemies material for siege equipment.

Bluebells can grow in the shade, and they have leaves which look very similar to grass stems. They carpet the ground in the same way as grass.

'Lestat De Lioncourt:


Glad you like them - all original pictures too, from a 2007 kayaking trip. As you say, it is how I pictured Cyrodiil, though not since Arena. *chuckle*

well, the interior of forested land does have a fair bit of ground cover. like shade plants and flowers. but also a whole lot of vine and brambly plants like blackberry's and such. but the very thickest growths around forested area's is around the edge's and in the breaks on the inside. for example where treefalls open a hole in the canopy. so you can get away with leaving the interior groundcover sparse with the right mix of plants. but go real heavy with undergrowth around the edges and such for realistic looking forest.

Off topic but add some iron rich fertilizer to get rig of the moss and some 2-4d to kill off the weeds and not the grass don't use 2-4d if you have kids playing on the grass though!

back to topic i would say jungle

Click the "Cyrodiil" topic in a conversation with an NPC that has it.

Here's what you'll get: "Cyrodiil is the cradle of Human Imperial high culture on Tamriel. It is the largest region of the continent, and most is endless jungle. The Imperial City is in the heartland, the fertile Nibenay Valley. The densely populated central valley is surrounded by wild rain forests drained by great rivers into the swamps of Argonia and Topal Bay. The land rises gradually to the west and sharply to the north. Between its western coast and its central valley are deciduous forests and mangrove swamps."

Notably--and you can check this against the first edition of the PGE, which the lore text was based on--the Heartlands are still part of the Nibenay Valley, and though the central islands are grasslands, the lake itself is surrounded by a rainforest--and the forests grow thicker and more swamplike the further south you follow the Niben River.

What Oblivion did was take the climate of the Colovian highlands (foresty and such) and place it all over. Yes, the very southern ends of the Niben are jungle like, but even then, just barely.

Wow,
61 for the majority atleast being jungle.
24 for the majority atleast being forest.

I say do what ever makes your mod easier/better. I have yet to see a convincing jungle in a video game outside of Crysis.

The lore describes it as a mix. The poll favors a mix. The only thing you really need to decide is how much of each and where. Oh yes, that "other" game doesn't show a mix, but why let the latest "fad" get in the way of a good game?

Rather than trying to take on the entire province of Cyrodiil in one enormous shot, and ending up creating yet another "started and abandoned" landmass, would it be better to pick a particular county in Cyrodiil and get that part at least "functional" before moving on to the next section? You could then work on seperate Jungle (mainly South and Central), Deciduous Forest (Western Highlands), Tropical Rainforest (Central river basin and Eastern), and Coniferous Forest (Northern foothills) areas at your leisure, or as you need them. Not only would the types of trees be different in each of those areas, but the undergrowth would vary, the rocky, swampy, or grassy underlying terrain could be unique to each area, et cetera.

:rofl: ... sorry I just find that funny.


They should have made dense forests with lots of clutter, different sized flora, moss, fungi etc. Look at a real forest, it's not a happy, clean area.

Personally I always pictured cyrodiil looking like a blender of climates. Morrowind's strange giant mushrooms and flora intruding along the borders, with Skyrym's harsh hardy plants invading from the north. Swamps in the south, and I personally loved the Oblivion mod that added feilds of wheat and such the to graze lands. I thought Anvil and the whole area to the west was done quite nicely in Oblivion, though to the Southwest bordering Eleswyr you really shouldn't have been able to move without passing four or more trees... The home of the wood Elf's border was... most uninspired as were the rest of the borders. But to continue with my description I always thought of impenatrable forests and mountains all converging upon a kind of platue which then suddenly dropped off into the imperial islands. I always imagined a long string of islands connected together by massive bridges with buildings and, entire cities built right into them. Waterfalls and raging rivers all pouring in around the islands and rushing into the niben bay. And the area directly surrounding the imperial city would be less dense favoring a valley climate LOTS of big trees and grasses, diverse and with soil so rich it is black. Anyways I always pictured Cyrodiil as impenatrable to any, but those who new it well. Which would explain why they were able to take everyone else over. But hey thats just me.

More forrest than jungle. I don't think you guys know what a forrest is....