Valenwood is sometimes described as a jungle, and most of the plants are many times larger than those.

I live in Auckland for another 9 days.
Ever since I came to New Zealand I thought there should be a game that resembles New Zealand rainforests with all their Ferntrees and Birds and all that!
In my Imagination, Valenwood is populated mainly by birds big and small, but I guess theres already lore established against that concept...
Never mind, Im way too nerdy...

crysis is like NZ... sorta... where you moving to? O: surely not abroad? There's quite a few talented NZ modders; Vality7, Rageaz, Illuminel, etc.

I imagine Valenwood been more High-fantasy/rain forest than NZ. it's an Elven province and should feel Elven.

Im one of these damned backpackers moving home.
Comeon! Elves living on the treetops of giant kauris and hunting down giant Moas and collecting kakapos from the Ground?
How awesome would that be?
But well, this is about Cyrodiil. And my imagination always stops when it comes to Cyrodiil. I guess Oblivion took it.
Seriously, i cant imagine anything in Cyrodiil, that isnt extremely boring.
P:C however is doing a great job!

I imagine... you are riding a gondola down a thin and windy river from a small town in the Nibenay valley. All around is thick green foliage, ferns litter the floor with some rising up a little higher. Thin trees covered partially in moss twirl through each other in their low canopies and a few isolated branches draqe over the shallow river, filled with vibrantly coloured fish. Some vines also dangle from the tree canopy, although most of the ones on the river route have been chopped away due to the frequent travelling on it. To your right, as the peasant in front of you pushes along against the riverbed with his oar, you spy glimpses of a white stone ruin, almost seeming reflective and glowing in patches from the light of the sun. Roots have grown through it's shape of circles and radial lines, cracking it apart. purple, catlike creature (from PC concept art) scatters past, obviously on the hunt, and dissapears into a large patch spade-leaved shrubs. The sound of various birds and mammals fills the air. You see a crevice nearby, which in all likelihood is a Nibenean red wolf den.

As you go around the bend, the water seems to get a little clearer, slowly, and begins to get deeper, and as you pass under a bridge, it finally comes into view. The great lake Rumare, expansive, stretching as far as the eye can see (Think lake Taupo in NZ), islands popping up throughout it occasionally, and at the centre, a magnificent masterpiece of immense scale, the Imperial city. At it's centre is a mighty central citadel of 3 tiers (think a full circle minas Tirath, but maybe less steep and fewer tiers) or magnificent white-gold colour, reminiscent of the ancient Aylieds, each wall 20 or 30 metres high at least, from the look of things. At the centre, the palace seems to extend naturally from the surrounding city, with White Gold tower shooting up into the air so high that it can be seen from many miles away (but not anywhere in Cyrodiil). Like the Ayleid ruins it is based on, several radial lines connecting to smaller circles and semicircles shoot out, to different districts, to the university and main barracks and prison. You cannot see much within the walls (although the arch mages tower and the enormous temple of the one project above the walls), but what you can see are the myriad of large, bustling neighbourhoods of middle to lower class that sit beyond the walls, scattered oddly in the name of natural population expansion, intersperesed between patches of the natural vegetation of the central island. The roads between these are constantly patrolled by Imperial guards, their red and silver apparel easily identifying them and showing their noble dignity.

As you eventually get closer you make out the buildings in greater detail. They are largely made of either stone or wood frames with the walls filled with Stucco. Some are painted in bright colours. Against some fo the fishing or trading waterfront districts on the shoreline, you see small, jewelled bridges come out, and sometimes larger ones as well, to nearby islands, which also have neighbourhoods of their own on them. Between these ports, other gondolas and boats wade past, conical hats protecting the people on board from the hot sun. One of the larger open districts, one that runs along the Eastern side of the city and has a bridge stretching across towards the mainland and the road leading to Cheydinhal, is quite low lying for the most part and filled with canols where the gondolas wade, multiple level middle class buildings spanning most of the area. Stretching out from behind the city, you can see the main bridge, wide enough to have 30 rows of carriages at a time on it, and with the bustling town of Weye resting around the centre, perfectly situated for commerce with those entering and exiting the city from Colovia.

After at least a good hour or so, you arrive at the docks of a small neighbourhood on one of the outer islands, where the gondolier lets you off and awaits another passenger on the routes around the city and to nearby settlements. The island juts out of the water rather dramatically, and upon it's rocky side, shrubs and tress project over the wooden dock where fisherman head out in small boats and a rice shipment has just come in from the farms surrounding Bravil. A few housing shacks and an inn line the shore, with more buildings up on top of the island, where carved rock steps lead. You head up the steps and through the small village (it is called such but is still technically part of the city), and go talk to the local guard. You request a their protection on your way to the palace. They scoff at you, not just anyone can go to the palace and certainly not with guards accompanying you on the long journey there. You hand them a slip of paper, and they look at it surprised. "I have an important message for the emperor", you say. They prepare you a carriage right away. Okay, so that was kind of a random story, I don't have any backstory behind it, but this is just the sort of stuff I think of in Cyrodiil and the IC, for example.

True, that sounds really good. Abots Boats must be a really really good way to approach the Imperial Island.
But I dont know, while thick jungles and purple cats and this Birdmonkey from Conceptart are promising Ideas, but I just cant really imagine anything unique about the Colovian part of Cyrodiil.
Nothing that hasnt been there since LotR and before and ever since reused again and again...
Especially when it comes to Creatures. All I can think of are Wolfs and Wargs and Bears and Deer and well... all the other Oblivion Creatures.
That does not mean I dont have faith in this project however!

Stirk's interiors are now being worked on. They should be made relatively quick with this team.

@moshingpanda In no way can I speak for the Province: Cyrodiil team, but Greek/Roman mythology seems as good a place to start as any. Imagine walking to Chorrol through the great forest, when a pack of feral two-headed dogs leaps out from the underbrush. They take you by surprise and one of them knocks you over and lands on your chest. As it stands their growling, globs of saliva dripping from its fangs, it suddenly goes limp and falls to the side, its four eyes rolling back into its heads as the venom from the snake still biting into its leg takes its toll. Your eyes follow the length of the snake, and as you get to its origin, you find yourself face to face with a manticore, its cloven back hooves kicking up dirt. It roars, causing the other cerberi to run off whimpering, and never taking its wary eyes off of you, goes to its victim and drags it off the path back to its den. As you continue, visibly shaken from your brush with death, you hear a rustle from the bushes and frantically reach for the gladius at your hip, but relax when a family of antellope come bounding out across the path and continue on their way. You smile at your jumpiness and do the same.

that last pick is amazing looking but i gotta say that it looks like it should be part of elsweyr imo

i can picture this being some what how black marsh might look but

but gortwog i have to agree with you on it being valenwood

are you guys gonna put up a video of your progrees any time soon? cause i would really like to see what you have all done so far with actual in game footage.


oh and also i know you really can't say really any thing on the ic but can you at least say if your gonna make it like its described in the PG1e and extreamly huge compaired to oblivion?
if not its cool .

what can't wee say stuff on the IRC? i thought that was the point of it... :/

also, read the original post, it's answers this and much more.

they said they can't say any thing about the IC because they are only doing one region at a time and arent really plannying any other region until they get there. or some thing like that

IC, wolli. As in the Imperial City. Not the IRC

Yea, the Imperial City is only in the very first stages of planning. Essentially some examples and a bit of artwork has been gathered as to what it may look like, but beyond that, there isnt anything else that has been done.

As for keeping stuff secret, there is plenty of material on the web for how things currently look with this mod. I doubt there will be any shortage of screenshots at any time for different things. I dislike keeping things secret and teasing of secret stuff; up to indepth details anyway. Its plenty fine seeing lots of whats happening, but you can find out for yourself how the quests are.

Want to see what kind of threads the guards of Stirk will be rocking? Look no further

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6492/overviewkv.jpg

It looks very cool. That said, my personal opinion is that there should be a greater visual distinction between the Imperial legion armor and the town guards. It's like the difference between a US Marine uniform and a NY police uniform. Especially since some towns like Bravil or Leyawiin probably wouldn't be able to afford full steel armor for their soldiers.

This would be cool as a guard captain's cuirass, or as a reward for the player for doing a quest for the count, but I don't personally feel that every guard should wear it.

Those pieces are really, really fantastic; Morrowind's Imperial aesthetic has always been the best, and yours appears to be carrying on the legacy perfectly. The neck area in particular looks interesting, clothes under armour= all of my boners.

That looks awesome, are there going to be boots and other stuff for it? BTW I love the emblem you used (The bird).

You will not mistake the city guard for Imperial Legion soldiers. We still have some other pieces in the works to complete the set as well. We want the guards to be noticable as Imperial, with obvious similarities to the Legion, but there will be more differences once the rest of the pieces are done that nobody will mistake them. The City Guards of Cyrodiil are not a rag tag group but are well trained men and their armor should befit that. Not to mention that this is the Imperial Province itself. Everything is a bit more grand than in the outlying provinces.

Plus, It's more likely that the Empire itself pays for the armor. The towns probably handle the design, that's it. Anyway, That armor is great! I can just imagine...

Awesome armour, guys

Fancy stuff!


Actually, it would be more logical that local authority provides its local guard while the empire funds the legions, Imperial guards, Blades etc.

Btw. Do you have any Blades lore planned out? Will you have any Blades as some kind of ceremonial/honour guards like they are portrayed in Oblivion or will they be spies like they are in MW? Imho, it would be ideal if the Blades as organisation would have more families like for example honour guards, undercover agents, ...

We will include Blades as spies.

Possibly even in Stirk...

Saying this basically garuntees that people will know.