» Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:44 am http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/Darkelfguy/The%20Tianytas%20Islands/Morrowind2011-06-2622-44-03-59.jpg
The year is 3E 427, and the Tamriel Empire has ruled for hundreds of years. But the power of the Imperials is on the wane, unrest and civil disturbances are growing, and legion troops are being recalled to Cyrodiil to keep the peace. All of Tamriel is as a tender box, ready to ignite at the slightest spark. And that spark, that call for revolution and civil war, may well start in the most unlikely of places. Far to the east, in the furthest holdings of the province of Morrowind, lies the Tianytas Islands. Long a home of the Dunmer, the Tianytas Islands have been traditionally ignored as of little importance. No great house representation or massive cities, the Imperial presence is the only true governmental authority on these fair isles. But that is all about to change; a new “rebellion” is on the rise, different from those that came before. Instead of Dunmer fighting to drive foreigners away, this rebellion openly accepts all who are tired of the Imperial system, waving a banner of independence for all to flock under. If these rebels should defeat the Imperials on these mere islands, it would be like spreading a wildfire across all of Tamriel, as others rise to the challenge to rid themselves of the Imperial institution.
Both sides, Imperials and Rebels, have much to gain and much to lose. Both have sound, even fanatical leaders. All the elements are in place, except one: a catalyst. One lone individual will decide the fate of an Empire, and enter the annals of history as one of the greatest heroes ever seen. Will they join with the rebels or the Imperials? Will they fight for Independence or Order? Whichever side they choose, for whatever cause, one thing is certain, change is coming and it will be brutal, swift, and without mercy for those who act slowly.
Welcome to Tianytas, whose side will you choose?
I. Introduction
II. Features
III. Screenshots
IV. The Story
A. The Cast
B. Cities and Places
C. Factions
V. Progress
VI. Release Plan
I. Introduction:
This project is probably one of my most ambitious, so ambitious in fact that I’ve decided to create a WIP thread for it (something I’ve never done before). The Tianytas Islands is a massive story-driven mod with an emphasis on quests that involve conflicting goals. There is no “right” side to the main quest or any of the factions, the player must choose to support the side they like the most, and live with the consequences of that decision. Like most other landmass mods, Tianytas will have a full-fledged main quest, six factions (including the usual suspects, i.e. the guild of fighters and the guild of mages), numerous side quests, and a number of towns and dungeons for the player to explore.
II. Features:
For Every NPC, A Story –
Everyone's come from somewhere, and everyone has a story to tell. There are no simple “just-to-exist” NPCs. If you ask an NPC about their background and if they like you enough, they’ll tell you their story. Some NPCs will even give you a quest if you ask about a Little Secret. As I understand it, this may be similar to what LGNPC does, though I don’t know since I’ve never played those mods.
Full-Length Dungeons –
Dungeons in Tianytas are a bit different from the standard Morrowind fare. A “complete” dungeon is one with multiple interiors, while a “mini” dungeon is similar to Morrowind’s numerous one-cell dungeons. The focus with Tianytas is to provide more of these “complete” dungeons, with “mini” dungeons acting as support (usually secret places that the player can stumble upon). Some dungeons, like tombs, will have secret areas that open up to an “end boss”. Defeating one of these bosses will dispel the undead in that tomb and they won’t return. In addition, dungeons will usually sport hidden unique items and small bits of story.
More Detailed Quests –
Tianytas has a fair number of fetch quests, it must be admitted, they’re hard to avoid. However, many of these side quests will contain greater story-elements to them, and may even be multi-path with different options and endings for the player to explore.
Absolutely, Positively, NO New Meshes or Textures! –
I imagine this won’t be a terribly popular choice, but I’ve decided against using any sort of modder’s resources (aside from perhaps Bittercoast sound files) in Tianytas. My reason for this is that I want Tianytas to fit in with standard Morrowind, and I believe the original meshes and textures included with the game have plenty of potential (plus everyone uses texture and model replacers anyway).
No Plans for Expansion Requirements –
Currently, there are no plans to make Bloodmoon or Tribunal requirements to play Tianytas, I want to make this mod easily accessible to everyone. The only way an expansion will be needed to play is if I encounter issues where I would need new script functions to get a quest to work.
As Conflict Free as Humanly Possible –
Tianytas won’t conflict with Tamriel Rebuilt or, to my knowledge, Melchior’s “Lyithdonea: The Azurian Isles”. In fact, Tianytas should be compatible with almost every other landmass mod out there, though I don’t know about Shadowsolid’s “Athlis Continent” (it looks amazing, but I have no idea where it’s being located). For anyone wondering about conflicts, Tianytas goes as far west as (48, -) and as far south as (-, -3). If you think your project might conflict, let me know and I’ll work on trying to make Tianytas compatible.
New Books and Other Documents –
I can’t make any claims to being a good writer, but regardless, Tianytas will have a number of new books (short stories) and other documents for the player to find. There’s even a newspaper that will occasionally update to report on current events (kind of like the Black Horse Courier, except it’ll report on more than just player actions).
III. Screenshots:
Fayarth - Exteriors
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Fayarth - Interiors
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Wilderness - Exteriors
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Dungeons - Interiors
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Fayarth Mining Company - Exteriors
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Construction Set Screenshots
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All screenshots (except for the CS ones) were taken with KINGPIX's amazing mod compilation "Morrowind Overhaul - Sounds and Graphics".
IV. The Story:
Summery: The Tianytas Islands are a distant part of the province of Morrowind, a fair ways east of the mainland. Traditionally, the islands have seen little conflict. Though originally settled by Dunmer, the islands have never had any Great House representation, as Tianytas was looked down upon as a place of few natural resources and little strategic importance. In fact, the only truly Dunmer faction on the islands is the Tribunal Temple. However, this doesn’t mean that the Great Houses never tried to colonize Tianytas. For a while, after the discovery of ebony in the hills outside of Fayarth, the Great Houses of Hlaalu and Telvanini raced to make claims on the islands. Sadly, neither house found the same success as the Imperials, and they soon left the island. There’s even rumored to still be an abandoned Telvanni settlement somewhere on the isles. It isn’t until more recent times that conflict has erupted on Tianytas, namely in the form of rebellion. The Tianytas Rebels are an “idealist” militant group, believing the Empire to be corrupt and seeking the independence of the Tianytas Islands from Imperial rule.
A. The Cast
These are quick summaries and quotes of the characters that will play a key role in the story of the Tianytas Islands.
Fedaves Lanatu:
Fedaves Lanatu is the young, charismatic leader of the Tianytas rebels, a group out to free the Tianytas Islands from the Empire. The founding member of the rebel movement and the brains behind the group’s strategies, Fedaves Lanatu is an intelligent, strong, and thoroughly likable fellow. But he’s not without his faults. Fedaves Lanatu is also arrogant, egotistical, and over-confident. Early victories against the Imperials have made Fedaves too sure of himself and a wee bit on the boastful side. In truth, these early victories were little more than raids on Imperial patrols and outposts, nothing of considerable substance. The charismatic rebel leader also likes to believe that he’s open-minded, making the movement to rid Tianytas of the Empire a multi-race affair and embracing outlanders to join the rebellion, causing the conflict to be more than just another native Dunmer dissident uprising. But in truth, Fedaves himself believes that Morrowind belongs only to the Dunmer and that the foreigners should know their place. Still, despite all of this, Fedaves Lanatu is a fairly competent leader, and his dream of an independent Tianytas no longer tied to the chains of the Empire is one shared by many, even a few Imperials. Fedaves seeks to bring a tide of change across the Tianytas Islands, but his rebellion may have considerably farther reaching effects.
Key Quote: “I’ll ask you a simple question, why should a distant Empire hold sway over us? Were we conquered in war? No, yet still we see the Imperial banners flying across Tianytas and Morrowind like so many parasites. What has the Empire brought us that we didn’t already have? Crime, corruption, and injustice! These are the products of a government rotten to its core. And what do we do with rotten things? We throw them out!”
Gualvari Adurnnys:
Gualvari has long been the commander in charge of the Imperial Legion and the Imperial Navy in the Tianytas Islands. A model soldier, Gualvari Adurnnys is a man that you could call a “True Believer”. He holds no doubts of the Empire’s right to rule, and earnestly believes it’s for everyone’s best interest that the Imperials continue to rule over Tamriel. Gualvari’s one and ultimate purpose in life, the one task he has always held himself to, is to keep the Empire safe from any and all threats. Should even one small island succeed from the Empire, he believes it would signal the end of a united Tamriel and the beginning of a long and dark civil war. For this very reason, Gualvari Adurnnys will stop at nothing to ensure that the Tianytas rebels are rooted out and destroyed.
Key Quote: “Are you blind my good man? If we were to negotiate with these rebels or in any way give in, we would lose the Empire! If the Imperial Legion were to listen to the lot of you useless bureaucrats, the Empire would be completely destroyed by the end of the week! We must show strength in order to keep the Empire whole.”
Netenu Antoni:
Netenu is Gualvari’s diplomatic advisor, but he doesn’t take orders from the legion commander himself, but rather takes his orders directly from the Emperor and the Elder Council. An old bureaucrat with considerable experience, Netenu acts as a peace moderator between opposing groups, listening to their complaints and offering solutions that would avoid violence. He also acts on behalf of the Emperor and Elder Council to ensure that the Imperial Legion on Tianytas operates in their best interests. Netenu has recently received word from the Elder Council to put a halt to Gualvari’s escalation of the fight with the Tianytas rebels. With so much unrest back in the capital province, the Empire cannot afford a war in some distant corner of Tamriel, so the Elder Council has authorized Netenu to take any action necessary to see that a peaceful end to the confrontation be met.
Key Quote: “Your aggression with the rebels has become a personal matter, Gualvari, blinding you to the needs of the Empire! The Elder Council has made their position clear, they want this conflict to be dealt with peacefully through diplomatic negotiation. You’ve made quite a mess of things here, it will take much to gain the rebel’s trust now…. Oh, and for the record, Gualvari Adurnnys, you’ve been recalled back to Cyrodiil, the Emperor and the Elder Council believe your talents would be better used on the home front. Have a nice voyage home.”
*These are just a few of the main characters on Tianytas, more character summaries will be uploaded at a later date*
B. Cities and Places
Fayarth:
Fayarth is the oldest, and largest, Imperial city on the Tianytas Islands. Historically it’s been a prosperous mining settlement, relying on the nearby ebony mines for wealth. However, the ebony mines didn’t last, eventually the last vein of ebony ore was mined out. That was 14 years ago, and the city of Fayarth has plunged from prosperity to poverty, becoming yet another in a long line of port cities that are little more than slums. Fayarth hasn’t completely lost all of its importance though, it’s gone from mining settlement to a major trade destination for shipping, as Fayarth has the best harbor and docking facilities in the Tianytas Islands. In the end, however, Fayarth is a city in rapid decline, slowly decaying back into the swamp on which it had been built. Rampant with poverty, crime, and corruption, it’s unlikely Fayarth will ever return to its glory days of old, the glamour of a wealthy community has long since faded away.
Baltsine:
It has been said that Baltsine is everything Fayarth used to be, an up and coming mining settlement with a bright future and lots of evident prosperity. Just 20 years ago a group of lucky miners struck the mother lode in the hills outside the quiet village of Baltsine, they found a huge vein of glass ore, possibly one of the largest ever seen. Baltsine went from village to city in a matter of months, quickly growing to rival Fayarth in size. With the collapse of the Fayarth Mining Company, Baltsine has become even more important, and may possibly overtake the city in trade as well as mining.
C. Factions
The Westside Smugglers:
In the years following the collapse of the Fayarth Mining Company, the Westside Smugglers moved into the city of Fayarth and began operating under the guise of the Verlen Shipping Company. An organized smuggler ring, the Westside Smugglers had no trouble quickly gaining advantage of the precarious situation in Fayarth. Poverty was at an all time high and the guards easily corrupted with bribes, making transporting contraband and other desirables into the city an easy process. The constabulary was the only group of law enforcement that the Westside Smugglers couldn’t corrupt, but that problem was soon dealt with when the smuggler ring made a deal with the new Imperial Magistrate. Currently the Westside Smugglers have a strong hold on the city with at least one district almost completely under their control. The vast majority of the city’s merchants and craftsmen now depend on the Verlen Shipping Company for supplies, and the group makes a hefty profit from skooma distilleries underneath the city, with most of the skooma being funneled directly into the worst of the city’s slums.
The Fayarth Constabulary:
The constabulary is a group of law enforcement independent from the city guard and Imperial Legion. They basically act as an investigative body, dealing with murder cases, drug rings, smuggling, and occasionally theft. The constables of Fayarth even have their own jail, held apart from the other jails operated by the city guard, and ultimately hold rank over the other law-enforcement bodies in the city. Their job is to provide safety and justice for the city of Fayarth, though that job has become harder to accomplish thanks to the Imperial Magistrate.
The Qualerii Gang:
The Qualerii are a gang of thieves, miscreants, vigilantes, and rabble-rousers operating out of the slums on the outskirts of Fayarth. They’re brutal in their methods, often resorting to extreme violence in order to obtain what they want. For the most part, members of the Qualerii Gang are impoverished individuals who were hit worst of all by the collapse of the ebony mines. Years of living in the slums have made them tough, resilient fighters with a strong taste for vengeance. They blame the Imperial Magistrate and the skooma trade for the poor living conditions in Fayarth, and will go to any means to put an end to both.
V. Progress:
Right now I’ve put just a little over 300 development hours into Tianytas, but those have been spread out across all of the various aspects of the mod (interiors, story, quests, exteriors, and landscape). So the current progress isn’t quite as impressive as it should be.
Exteriors: ~8% Complete
Interiors:
Fayarth: 47 Interiors Completed
Wilderness: 3 Interiors Completed
Dungeons: 5 Interiors Completed
Total: 55 Interiors Completed (about 15-18%)
Quests:
# Planned: 100
# Outlined: 70
# Written: 8
# Implemented: 2
# 100% Finished: 1
A few notes on the quest progress bar; “Outlined” means a quest has been summarized with all major plot points and tasks. “Written” means a quest has all dialogue, journal entries, and associated documents completely finished. “Implemented” means the quest is playable in the mod. And “100% Complete” means the quest is completely playable from start to finish with no dialogue holes or other bugs found.
VI. Release Plan
I currently plan to release Tianytas in parts, using a system that’s basically a mix of how Tamriel Rebuilt and “Acts of the Lich Father” are released. Each part of Tianytas that’s released will include an area of the islands, all of the quests, dungeons, and interiors located there, and a portion of the main quest. These releases will be in .esm form, with a .esp patch with all the new content for those using an earlier version of Tianytas. Right now there are plans for about four different parts.
*Whew* Guess that about wraps everything up (is this post long enough?). Comments welcome!
