Does anyone know whether the Great House councils the player interacts with in the game are leadership for each House throughout the entirety of Morrowind, or were these merely regional councils for Vvardenfell? I remember that the Redoran moved their Council to Vvardenfell under the leadership of Venim to take part in the land grab when the island was open, but I also feel as though there was dialogue that indicated that the Vvardenfell Great House councils were only localized councils.

Also, piggybacking on my primary question, is the Grand Council in Castle Ebonheart the Grand Council for Morrowind, or is this council only concerned with the local affairs of Vvardenfell?

These are functioning as the actual capitols for the Hlaalu, Redoran, and Imperial governments at the least, and probably the Telvanni. Houses Dres and Indoril still have their councils and capitols on the mainland. This is symbolic to some extent, and the old capitols of Narsis and Blacklight/Baan Malur are still the centers of trade for the Hlaalu and Redoran, respectively, and are presumably still important in mainland politics and governance. Old Ebonheart is still the primary Imperial holding on the main land and is important for both trade and the projection of military force. It's hard to say exactly what is going on with the Telvanni political system since they seem to give each master of a tower a vote and no mainlander mage lords are represented at Sadrith Mora.

No they are not ....only Reodran has it's actual Capital on Morrowind,and even for them the Red Book states that:

Telvanni :

"Sadrith Mora is the district seat of House Telvanni"

I don't know about the Hlaalu capital but it was probably still Narsis.

Ebonheart is the seat of the Duke of Vvardenfell and the Legion for the Vvardenfell district not all of Morrowind.

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Since the council was moved to Ald'ruhn, would that mean that the district council was originally housed on the mainland?

Also, if the Grand Council is only the council of Vvardenfell, do its resolutions only affect that district? I'm thinking back to the Telvanni quest to overturn the Mages Guild monopoly based on an interpretation of the Armistice and wondering if the mainland Great Council would also adopt a similar measure if it was passed on Vvardenfell.

Ebonheart was the seat of the Grand Council of Vvardenfell
Mournhold is the seat of Indoril and was the seat of the king of Morrowind and possibly the mainland grand council? It's never stated where the grand council of the mainland meet during the third era, fourth era it's Blacklight
Sadrith Mora is the seat of Telvanni for Vvardenfell
Port Telvannis is the seat of Telvanni for Telvannis
Ald'Ruhn is the seat of Redoran for Vvardenfell
Blacklight is the seat of Redoran for Velothi Mountains
Tears is/was the seat of Dres for House Dres, currently it's unknown if the Dunmer took back Tears or not when they pushed the Argonians out
Balmora is the seat of Hlaalu for Vvardenfell
Narsis is the seat of Hlaalu for Hlaalu controlled heartland
Vivec was the seat of the Tribunal Temple for Vvardenfell
Mournhold was the seat of the Tribunal Temple for Mainland

It's currently unknown what the seat of the Reclamationist temple is but my money is either on Mournhold or Necrom, same with Sadras but my money is on Narsis since I believe Sadras is the more traditionalist side of House Hlaalu who weren't pleased with the Empire coming it.

Good information. Some of it I knew, some of it I didn't. As for Sadras it never occurred to me they were the more traditionalist side of Hlaalu. I just thought they were a brand new house with no ties to other houses.

They're not. Officially anyway, as we know nothing about them as of right now.

Yea, that's just my own headcanon of House Sadras because I feel it makes the most sense for a sudden new house to be built out of nowhere, it must have had people so in my mind I think of the traditionalist side of House Hlaalu.

It's still a good theory, and if memory serves right not all House Hlaalu members were pro- Empire in 3rd era Morrowind.

Some of the highest ranking member of House Hlaalu were actually part of the Cammona Tong.

Yeah, I do remember that now. I'm gonna go play Morrowind now.

I'd laugh if House Sadras was devoted entirely to infrastructure, and only rose to power because half the nation wound up getting bulldozed.

Sorry about another question, these are emerging as I replay Morrowind.

So when the Neravarine becomes Hortator of the Great Houses, would that essentially be Hortator of the Great Houses of Vvardenfell, since the House Councils are essentially District Councils? Feels like it kind of reduces the significance of the title if that is the case.

2nd question, does the mainland House Council supercede that of the Vvardenfell Councils. For example, does the Redoran Council in Blacklight have the authority to overrule the Council in Ald'ruhn?

Not sure about the second question, but for the first, I think it's supposed to be Hortator for the entire province, but whether or not it actually would be is kind of vague. Originally, all of Morrowind was going to be featured, but they had to scale the game down to just Vvardenfell and the existence of houses Dres and Indoril is kind of glossed over so they don't even get a mention in the main quest. Tamriel Rebuilt will be modifying the main quest to expand the Hortator segment so they can include Dres and Indoril votes.

I've always thought that most of the Winterhold Dunmer are essentially political refugees. The loyalist Hlaalu that fled during the Red Year had no reason to go back, since Imperial power could no longer guarantee their safety. I'm picturing angry mobs of Indoril and Redoran, bolstered by very vocal, very loud Camonna Tong who formed House Sadras out of the nationalist wing of their old House.

I think of House Sadras something similar to that, but wider. That is to say, they were the Hlaalu who distanced themselves from the Empire, some of them as traditionalists like House Indoril (before they turned from the Tribunal), but also because:

• They thought that the Empire was on the verge of collapse anyway. That wasn't unusual at the end of the third era.


• They thought that the Empire stifled free trade. It didn't as much as the Temple, but it did support various monopolies i.e. the Guilds and the East Empire Company.


• They stood to gain from more internal trade.


• They wanted to directly trade goods protected by the Empire.


• They stood to gain in an independent kingdom of Morrowind under Helseth rather than in an Imperial province or the old theocracy.

What's worth remembering is that while they supported the Empire since before they invaded, the one Hlaalu principle is compromise and that entails adapting to survive and prosper, not giving up everything to stand by whatever other principles they hold. And if that means renouncing their old house to create a new one, some of them would be willing.