Ok, so I asked this question long ago, and got zero response. I'm hoping that people only wanted some time to think
Anyways, I'm wondering what people think the materials and style used in Dres architecture might be like.

Personally, I know they're settlements are either in jungle territory, or bordering it. So, I was thinking they might use a lot of wood and plant materials (such as hardened sap, like amber, instead of that green glass for windows). And seeing as how they are supposed to be some of the most traditional dunmer, they also probably use mud/clay/dirt in their architecture like the other great house (except Telvanni and Indoril). However, when it comes to the style of architecture, remember that they are a rich, slave trading society, so embellishments are probably not uncommon on their structures.

Also, as a side note, Tamriel Rebuilt has taken to using traditional Velothi buildings for their settlements in their mod, however, this is because no one has offered a good alternative set of buildings. On top of this, they have a limited amount of time to work on such a trivial thing when it would take quite a bit of time to reconstruct those settlements with new architecture. But it is my opinion that enough time has passed from the time of Veloth for the Dres to adopt their own style of architecture like the other great houses. (But, in all due respect, the TR team is amazing)

Any ideas guys?

Well yes the Velothian style of course, but I think everything would be much more organic then what we see in Vvardenfell. The Dres territory is not just jungle either, only the more southern strip. There are also mountains, plains, valleys and so on and so forth. I'd also go on a bit further to dare say that it resembles elven architecture as well to some extent.

What do you think it would be made out of? I've heard opinions about this. People say anything from wood, amber and the traditional mud/clay/dirt motif to bug parts.

I'd say anything is fair game.

From the first pocket guide:
Clan Dres rules the southern sweep of Morrowind, where the fertile Deshaan plain merges with the swamps of Black Marsh. The Dres are the great slave-traders and plantation owners of Morrowind. Thousands of wretched captives, mainly Argonians but including not a few khajiits and even Imperial citizens, pass through the infamous slave-pens of Tear, the Dres capital, from whence most find an early death on the plantations which surround that ill-omened city.

So what you should do is use local materials for their plantation style dwellings and outbuildings except of course the main house. It's reasonable to say that the richer among the plantation owners are powerful politically and socially, such that they would have a second house inside the city of Tear. The plantation house would be for large parties and displaying their wealth, the city house is for entreating small groups and doing things more or less off the record. They'll want to show they are cultured and ect so you can show them to have their plantation house drawing upon styles of buildings from other Houses (not other cultures though, don't forget the xenephobia), but it's important that you make a difference between the style of the lower class buildings and avoid slathering something specific everywhere. The rich can afford to import and probably would. I wouldn't agree that they are rich as a society as you said earlier, that would depend quite a bit on the trickle down theory and I'd suppose they would rather consolidate the wealth and keep it in house (not house with a big H).

They likely buy and keep quite a few of the flying insects from the Telvanni. Don't overdo it, but small platforms for the insects to land near on the roofs would be appropriate. As for the material, (for the sake of something different, possible, and perhaps likely) rammed earth. Low ventilated homes for the swampier areas. Closer to the plains, something more like sod houses.

The Redguard comic book features a Dres Slave plantation near Tear, http://elderscrolls.com/codex/fiction_comic.htm. Pretty much the most definitive source on the subject, seeing as it's visual.

Yea where did you get that the "flying insects" were Telvanni?

All you see is a wall, bug shells like everywhere else, and bamboo cages. Not a lot to go on.

From the pocket guide. The lines above the ones I previously quoted.

Clan Telvani is the most xenophobic of a xenophobic race, shunning all contact with outsiders, preferring to tend their herds of giant insects amid the rocky hills and islands of the extreme northeast. Telvani bug-musk is a highly prized perfume among the Dark Elves, and their riding-insects command the highest prices in the markets of Almalexia and Narsis.

The rideable crabs I'd figure were kept by the Redoran.

Again where are you getting that Telvanni have flying insects? The flying ones seem to be a Dres thing, not something from Telvanni.

ImmortalBlood - He's getting that from the Pocket Guide to the Empire. You can it find at the imperial library.

I agree about the comic, it doesn't offer enough information. All I got out of that is the closer you get to the jungle, the more protection they put around the slave pits. They were really high and made out of stone or perhaps adobe.

As with others, I'd point out that the main heartland of Dres parts are the Deshaan Plains, not the Argon Jungle. So the 'wood and amber' style, while cool, strikes me as a little farfetched.

Shades' ideas sounded solid.


One other note: 'Last Scabbard of Akrash' (I think) mentions cantons in Tear. And possibly gives other details (however obscure and negligible, and easily discounted) about 'Dres' architecture.

No he's not because it says no where about Telvanni and flying insects. The flying ones are already with Dres. That is my point. The flying wasps you see in the comic are NOT from Telvanni but from the Dres themselves.

Read again:


Unless you are somehow extrapolating (equally unfoundedly) that these 'riding insects' are not flying ones, then there's no reason to assume that the Telvanni don't have flying insects. And seeing as they appear to be renowned for their trade in said insects, there's no reason the Dres wouldn't buy them.

True, there's also no reason the Dres wouldn't have/produce their own.

But that wasn't really the crux of Shades' point, was it?

I have no reason to believe that the Dres would buy flying insects (or any kind at all) from the Telvanni. Narsis and Almalexia are Hlaalu and Indoril territory respectivly as well. I mean we could go ahead and assume that they do but it would be unfounded.

No it wasn't his point but that is what I was discussing, so it was my point.

Anyway, this thread has gotten side tracked on something not concerning Dres architecture (but rather flying insects and Dres-Telvanni trade relationships ).

So in an attempt to get back on track:

Some people have said that the Dres may use cantons or a ziggurat style. This would definitely be away around the marshy landscape, but in the plains area, where the plantations would be found, this wouldn't be very cost effective. If the Dres used large communal buildings in their urban centers, what alternative would be found in their rural areas?