I'm just wondering if there's any specific lore regarding the ancient dunmer strongholds found across Morrowind. I know that the one was the stronghold of Dagoth Ur and lost, but there's very little info about the others. Such as, why were they abandoned? Which ancient great houses occupied which strongholds? I've tried searching both UESPWiki and the Imperial Library for info on these, but I really can't find much about them. Would anyone care to enlighten me?

If I remember right, they were used as strongholds during the First Era; Kogoruhn is revealed as a base of operations (?) for House Dagoth at the time.

LOL, so there's not much lore about them then. I always had a fascination with them because they are such a mystery. I always wondered, why would the dunmer build such amazing structures only to abandon them? I'd love to build a mod to reclaim and repopulate them. Unfortunately I have too many mod projects on my plate at the moment.

In any case, I'm planning on writing a book about them for my book mod. However, seeing as there's not much lore surrounding them, I guess I'm free and clear to write it based on my own interpretations. Though I still plan on leaving them a mystery for the most part, rather than making up too much about them, thus leaving them still open to other interpretations. I tend to write all my books with specific authors, who present their own biases, which helps keep all my books fairly lore friendly. Folms Mirel is a good candidate for this book's author.

Consistent with the statement that they were meant to be safe way stations for travelers, they are located on main roads, roads that may have been main roads in the past, or coastal anchorages (such as Andasreth, Indoranyon, Rotheran, and Valenvaryon), and their layout and furnishings strongly suggest lodgings with furnished bedrooms and dormitories.

I don't know when they were abandoned, but Vvardenfell itself was depopulated after the War of the First Council; did they fall into disuse and become havens for marauders and rogue factions at that time?

I suppose brushing up on my lore about the War of the First Council might at least shed some light on the culture who used these strongholds (which are called dunmer, but technically weren't they chimer at this time?). That's at least something to work with.

Welcome to Kogoruhn - Watch Your Step!
(Last Public Rest Stop Until Red Mountain)

there are many possibilties on what these strongholds may hold. After searching many of them each holds something diffirent. From Master trainers to bandits

Yeah, but the current occupacy of the strongholds doesn't actually address the lore surrounding the them. That's more about their illustrious past and why they're called "dunmer strongholds" and not just another dungeon to romp through.

They are the way they are because they were abandoned for some mysterious reason. I would like to attempt to unravel that mystery, if at all possible.

not mysterious at all. The battle of red mountain and the blight, etc. Tribunal Temple kicked everyone out of Vvardenfall exept for those in Ebonheart and Vivec. All the other towns you see in Morrowind are relatively recently built, or recently repaired after hundreds of years of abandonment. Recently means around 23 years.

According to one of the books of Marobar Sul, the Ashlanders built them. They were probably places for House warriors to stay, and also defended Vvardenfell against Nordic raids.

Yes, but back then every non-Dwemeri elf on Morrowind was an ahslander. Or something closest to it. Ashlander culture really didn't take off until... well the Ashlands came into being, thank you very much Dagoth Ur.

IMO the strongholds were used as a type of manor back in those years

Perhaps they were built in the declining days after the high point of Velothi culture, when the Dunmer were halfway down the road into Ashlander-style barbarism.

Weren't the ashlands always there? That volcano has been there since the Dawn after all.

It would be nice to have a fanfic about the first years or months of Vvardenfell?s repopulation, how the dunmer adjust and get used to the territories, old abandoned towns, and the new settlements.

I seem to remember a good theory that the strongholds functioned as one giant fortress- hence the reason for the propylon chambers. Each one had a minimal garrison. If one fell under attack, the other stronghold garrisons traveled there by propylon to reinforce the besieged garrison. Or maybe it was each one had a medium garrison that was only reinforced by the two neighboring.

May have been a mod (curse you LGNPC for being so lore-friendly (most of the time)) :swear:

And Vvardenfell wasn't completely abandoned. A number of settlements already existed- I believe it's stated that a few Great House settlements, Vivec, and I'd have to assume a number of Telvanni settlements (as they wouldn't care about the Temple).

I think there are individual books stating Balmora, Gnisis, Tel Aruhn, Vivec, and Sadrith Mora were all around. Some even into the First Age (if you believe 2920). Balmora was stated as Vivec's palace city before Vivec City. Tel Aruhn was where the Night Mother met a few people.

It makes sense that they'd function as garrisons of a sort. They are after all built like fortifications, and their placement on the map is near enough to the Dwemer ruins that it suggests that they were meant as some kind of power check against the dwarves.

Something rattling around in my head wonders if the Strongholds were old seats of Great Houses. I seem to recall a thing around Kogoruhn being House Dagoth's former position of power. I'll see if I can pull up a quote. There we go -On House Dagoth by Hasphat Antabolis

And Sul-Matuul: "Nearby lies Kogoruhn, the ancient halls of the forgotten house, House Dagoth."

There certainly is room.

The strongholds were the primary settlements of High Velothi culture, before the degeneration of the Morag Tong.

Based on what?

I dunno, but that was my original assumption as well. The only problem is I can't find for the life of me where I thought I read it, so I've chucked that assumption in the bin until I can find evidence for it.

"..the ancient strongholds of a brighter time for the Dunmer..." (from UESPWiki) always seemed to hint at "High Velothi", and Kogoruhn being noted as the stronghold of Lord Voryn Dagoth seems to indicate that they were indeed once used as strongholds. Does this mean the other ancient great houses used these structures as strongholds of their own? It seems likely. They are well fortified, and their architecture hints that they could have possibly been used as garrisons.

This is of course mostly speculation, but that's ok for the purposes of writing a book written by a character in the game. He's allowed to speculate, so long as it is presented as such.

There are two problems with that. The first is that the line from UESP is unfounded as far as I can tell. The second is that the Great Houses did not originate during the High Velothi period. The High Velothi period ended with the Chimer group becoming divided and scattering into various tribes. After some time the tribes reorganized in the effort of repelling Nordic invaders and those reorganized tribes eventually evolved into the Great Houses. So House Dagoth using Kogoruhn really has no grounds for placing the strongholds into the Velothi period, afterall, House Dagoth didn't even exist until quite sometime after the Velothi period...

It's uncertain when these strongholds were built. We know they existed during the war of the first council, and were used, but were they built then or before? If they were built before, that may put them into the High Velothi period. Structures like these seem to indicate some kind of social organization, which I don't believe the chimer had after the fall of Velothi culture and before the organization of the great houses under the First Council. So my guess is they were either built during the time of the First Council, or long before. :shrug: