Stros M'kai, Tiuj Kiuj Restis

(Those who Remained)

Introduction

Stros M'kai is a project that aims to recreate the island of http://www.imperial-library.info/content/high-quality-map-stros-mkai-map-official in Morrowind. The island is off the coast of Hammerfell and Cyrodill and is part of the Hammerfell province. It is located ingame extremely far west of Vvardenfell, near Province: Cyrodiil's Stirk.

Lore

Stros M'kai was the setting for the Elder Scrolls spinoff titled The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, and much inspiration is being drawn from that game as information as a basis for constructing the Isles. This is however, not attempting to faithfully recreate the landmass in Redguard or recreate Redguard itself. Instead, the mod takes place during the timeframe of Morrowind, which is 459 years after Redguard, therefore much will have changed on Stros M'Kai during this time.

Progress

At this time, I have imported a basic heightmap for Stros M'Kai into Morrowind which I will use as a basis for creating the landmass. It is slightly larger in scale than the landmass in Redguard which means locations such as the city of Stros M'Kai will be much larger, and so will the Dwemer ruins on the island. I have also begun modeling and texturing the various architecture that will make up the city/towns on the Island and aim to complete the new tilesets before construction of the locations in the CS.

Screenshots

Most screenshots look a bit odd because TESAnnwyn imported everything I painted as water to be just barely above the water level so I'll have to edit and smooth out all the terrain in the CS.

And http://i.imgur.com/K3SGytm.png + http://i.imgur.com/Wj2dqjf.png

I would show off the textures I made as well, but those are a little less practical to display.

Story

There are a few reasons the player would end up travelling to Stros M'Kai that I have conceptualized, these I will list. Firstly, an investigation of the book, "N'Gasta Kvata Kvakis!", which was written by the Sload Necromancer N'Gasta on the Isle of the same name before the events of Redguard. The player would go to Stros M'Kai and then investigate the ruins of the old Necromancer's tower to find a conspiracy of dark Sload and Daedric magic still present on the Island, which the player can either embrace which will negatively affect the residents of the Isle of N'Gasta or cleanse, which will positively affect the island.

Secondly, the player embarks on a journey to Stros M'Kai to investigate the Dwemer ruins on the island, which are being studied by the Mages Guild there. Here they will find the repaired and operational Orrery, and a Dwemer mining city which since the events of Redguard has been discovered to be much larger than previously thought.

Finally, while this may not be the last idea I end up having, diplomacy between the city of Stros M'Kai and the ancient Yokudan settlement on the island has gone stale, and the player must decide the fate of this conflict.

New Lore

It has been 459 years since the events of Redguard, and much has changed over this period of time. Saintsport has expanded, and is larger and more present in the island's politics and economy.
Since the death of N'Gasta, the Isle of N'Gasta has been reclaimed by the locals, and a town has been built on the island. Unfortunately, dark magic used by the Necromancer N'Gasta didn't end when they were killed by Cyrus. As Daedric Princes will, and Sload alike, the Isle remains cursed, even after the vile undead were slain for good.
The Dwemer Orrery was restored by Cyrus in the events of Redguard, and now remains maintained and studied by the Mages Guild, who have set up permanent camp outside the site.
The Dwemer mines on the island have since been explored further, and have discovered to be much larger than previously believed. Many dangers, treasures and much knowledge alike lies in these ruins.
The Yokudan camp on the island has since expanded, and is now the size of a small settlement.

Art Style and intent

Many years have passed since Morrowind was released. Even more have passed since Redguard was released. In order to live up to the standards in graphics today, the textures and meshes in this mod will be of greater polycount and resolution than that of Vanilla Morrowind. I am uncertain as to the extent that this will be, as I always do try to optimize my meshes as much as I can, but it should be expected that the art in this will look more, "recent", than the art in vanilla Morrowind or Redguard.

Asides from technical details, Stros M'Kai is an entirely new land of a different province. This means new architecture, new flora, and nearly new everything. The architecture will follow much inspiration from Redguard, but I may also draw inspiration from other sources, such as Skyrim, since the Dwemer ruins in Skyrim resemble the Dwemer ruins on Stros M'Kai quite a bit in terms of the Stonework and such used.

Workflow plan, etc.

As I have said, the Isles require all new art to be constructed. The first item on my plan is to create the tilesets, flora, terrain, rock, and other meshes required to create any sort of environment. At the same time, the landmass itself needs to be perfected in the CS in terms of general smoothing, height, and other such things. After enough art has been created, landscaping will begin. When this is done, NPCs, then quests and dialog.

At this time it is just me working on the mod but if anyone else would like to help than feel free to contact me. There is much to be done and more people sharing the workload would of course help the mod be completed faster.

That is all. If you have questions or comments, please don't hold back!

Sounds excellent. But why not combine the first two story ideas? I see no reason not to let the player get involved in the island's troubles, AND investigate the depths of the Dwemer ruins. I'm sure there's ways for the ruins to be connected to what's going on.

I didn't really specify, but that's what I intended to do. The Dwemer and Kvata Kavis are reasons to go to the island, but you'll have the option to do all these quests once there, even if you went there without specific intent, i.e. a quest to go there didn't start from Vvardenfell.