I've been working on this mod for a couple of years, and rebooted it twice as I've learned more about modding in general. It started out as Stormguard briefly, then became Wyrmwood Island, and then settled into Ravenwood Island.

This mod intends to take existing lore about the Dwemer, and extend it to the breaking point - and beyond. It asks the question, what if you could channel a Dwemer, and continue where they left off? Not entirely far fetched, since the main quest requires you to enlist the help of a Dwemer ghost. What if you used their technologies to terraform a barren, glacier-filled dead volcano into a homeland? What if you continued developing their advanced technology?

It goes a bit deeper than that, and soon the same sorts of discussions the Dwemer had amongst themselves begin to crop up on Ravenwood. How far should the technology go, and is it safe?

As a practical matter, Ravenwood is located well North of Vvardenfell in the Sea of Ghosts. It's southernmost region is roughly the same latitude as the glaciers of Solstheim, and its coast is ice-coated and rocky. Within the maw of the long dead volcano, however, is a whole other world created by a race of half-elves, determined to create a new homeland for those like themselves. After a hundred years, the settlement has split into three camps - might, magic, and machinery.

Winter's Tide is the village of might. It's also the doorway to Ravenwood, and features a deep water port on the river that flows out of the mountains to the sea. It's of Nordic design, and is nestled in a hollow. These people are fishermen and hunters. They love the outdoor life, and really have little interest in the goings on in the valley. Although they have a Dwemer centurion smithy, he's seen as just another denizen.

Arbor Glen is a tree village, in the vein of Valenwood. It consists of platforms high above a swamp, and is the village of magic. It's denizens preferring to live in their own 'ivory tower' of sorts, and study the arcane. They distrust the machines that the villagers across the lake are making, and setting free in the valley. While they don't necessarily 'fear' them, given that even the mildest of their number could probably wipe out the machines in a single blast, they fear what the technology could do to Ravenwood. This is partly because the island is secret, even from the Emperor, but also because of what happened to the Dwemer so long ago. No one really knows what happened under the Red Mountain, and the fear is that it could happen again - only closer to home.

Finally, Bree is a small, almost Imperial village, nestled on the far side of the lake from Arbor Glen. It is the village of machinery. Many villagers enjoy electric lighting, ceiling fans, and flushing toilets. The mine is completed automated with Dwemer-like centurions, the streets are lit with gas lamps, and there is even a bathhouse! These are people who welcome the creature comforts that can be had with technology. They believe that the Dwemer's downfall came from their challenge of the gods, not their high technology. In fact, there is a rousing debate on whether there were, in fact, two camps of Dwemer; much the same as Ravenwood has two schools of thought. These people aren't worried, though; because they are simply seeking to recreate the more useful of Dwemer technologies, not the more arcane technologies that brought about their destruction.

There is a fourth "village" near the summit, but it isn't discussed much. It's accessible via a narrow mountain trail from Arbor Glen. There aren't very many residents anyway...

This mod is intended to be a rabbit hole, and the hole goes very deep indeed.

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I guess you can't have image links, but those are some screenshots of the WIP. Note, the earlier links are to really old shots, later shots are more recent.

Whoohoo! Congrats on finally letting the peeps at the officials in on your 'little' project!

I left out an important note. Ravenwood is even more racist and xenophobic than even the Ashlanders of Morrowind. Their 'spiritual' leader was one of the first Bretons, and he still holds a bitter grudge against man and mer alike. His hatred kept him from material success, but his sheer longevity has graced him with some wisdom from it all.

I had forgotten about the auto-censoring feature...

Looking forward to your many updates. Have you taken a look at Vurt's assembled work yet? Last I checked there were ferns and bushes in the making

Ah, not yet. I'm taking a break from landscaping for a bit, and going back to interiors. That, and I'm tracking down some of the many bugs in Ravenwood. Bad collisions, scripts that throw errors, etc. I'm presently irritated with one of the weather effects generators that, for no apparent reason anyway, causes the engine to barf.

it would be nice if, just for a little while, everything implemented worked as expected...

Wow! What an amazingly detailed mod, and it came out of nowhere from my perspective. I was unaware of this undertaking. Those screenshots look delicious, I can't wait for more updates on this.

Nice! This sounds really promising! Can't wait to play it.

One note though. When it's finished, could you add "Necessities of Morrowind" compatibility?
It will allow you to add edible/drinkable food and water, and other amenities to your mod.

I consider it a "must have" mod, and never play without it.
Doing so will make your mod work with NoM, so that users of it won't starve to death while they are on Ravenwood Island.
Could you, please? It would be awesome!

NoM compatibility was built-in from the start. As part of the main plot, you are stranded on the island for quite a while - much like Wizard's Island. If you look closely in Bree, you will see a NoM wellhead. There are also three taverns (one of which is like Thirsk, where you can sleep for free), a farm, a vineyard, and guest quarters in the keep.

Believe me, you won't go hungry, thirsty, or tired.

Ok, it's *possible* in the outback, particularly if you are walking to the outer coastal areas, given how long it takes to get there on foot. I normally jack up my speed to 255 while testing, and it takes a goodly while to get to the furthest tip - even taking the shortcut route through the western pass. At a normal speed, I'd guess it should take about 4-5 game hours to get there. If you get turned around, it could take a day or so to wander back to civilization.

But seriously - if you set out for the wilderness unprepared, you kind of deserve to starve to death and end up wolf food, don't you think?

This was an unexpected find. Could we possibly get an MGE overview of the island? I've looked at all of the shots and I'd like to see how it all fits together.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about PCs and PCBs in the TES world, but it looks like you have some interesting ideas. I'll look forward to giving it a try.

Oh, it already has NoM? Awesome!
(I guess I didn't see it... heheh...)

One last thing...
I noticed that you are including a bathhouse...

Have you seen my Bathing Mod?
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8304

It adds bathhouses and scented soap, that can be used to bathe, to Morrowind.
The player needs to bathe occasionally, or suffer Personality penalties, to simulate, well, stinking.
(NPCs will actually comment on it in dialogue, too.)

The scented soaps used for bathing also provide various bonuses when used.
Also provided is re-useable "Travel Soap", that allows the player to bathe in the wild, in rivers, lakes, or the sea.
It doesn't work as nicely as a normal bath though, you just wash off the stink, so no special bonuses.

If you want, you could make your mod compatible with it.
Just make a compatibility plugin, with your bathtub as an activator, and add my regular bathtub script.
(You may want to add some of the soaps to an NPC for sale, too.)

That way, users of my mod can bathe, during their stay there.
(Also provided is a "modder's resource" plugin, that you can use to add the Bathing Mod's resources, if you like.)

Well, what do you think?
I just thought I'd offer, and see if you liked the idea.

@Asdf - I'm not running MGE, though I'm considering it. I only recently got a CPU/video card capable of handling it acceptably. (I upgraded from an Athlon 4400+ to a 5600+, and video-wise from a 7600GT to a GTS250/9800GTX+)

I've been wanting to try out MGE for a while, though; so I may give it a shot. Those are rendered using only an MCP modified GOTY version. I do have the light falloff fixes installed.

@Gaius - No, I didn't know about your bathing mod. I did know about Korana's similar mod, and I'm implementing bathtubs in addition to the bath house, as well as soaps. I like the bathrobes for BB models, though. I might have to borrow those!

The rich in Bree have their own bathtubs, soaps, etc. Lower classes use the bathhouse (or the river), which is why it's not opulent. It's sort of the opposite from the way they normally work, but it fits in with the storyline.

I'm still writing all the scripts to handle stuff like this, but the player will be expected to bath somewhere at least once a game week while in Bree. The folks in Arbor Glen will comment positively if you are clean, but not really notice if you aren't. The folks in Winter's Tide will react as well, but in a different way depending on whether you are male or female.

-General

Ravenwood's society has intentionally closed themselves off from the rest of Tamriel, but as you might imagine, it's still fairly similar. The founders really just changed the names a bit here and there, but it's still quite hierarchical. This is largely due to the fact that, prior to founding the island, they were all members of the Empire. One was the inheritor of a stake in a large contract firm (if you recall the firms in ADIF, and TAA), another a battlemage for the blades, another a member of the Mages Guild, etc. They are steeped in the culture they seek to avoid, and ended up reproducing most of it on Ravenwood in an altered form.

About the only real differences are that the government is based on a council, rather than a single ruler, and specific Imperial laws that don't really make sense beyond the Empire have been dropped. Specifically, they don't care if you deal in Dwemer artifacts, they don't care if you snort enough moon sugar to make a Khajitt swoon, etc. They may react differently to you with Skooma, but they won't refuse to deal with you. Otherwise, laws about stealing, assault, murder, sleeping in town, etc. are still in place.

There are still wealthy, and poorer, individuals, etc., but there aren't any dirt poor folks in Ravenwood - at least not in the valley. To be 'accepted' into Ravenwood, you have to buy your way in and find a contact - so you had to have been at least nominally middle class just to set foot on the island. Also, you don't just take a ship to Ravenwood. Ravenwood has to send a ship to fetch you, and you are completely at the mercy of the ship's captain. This is enforced with a very narrow channel that only Dwemer-technology modified ships can maneuver through, and a perimeter defense system that looks for, and identifies, strangers along the coast line. This is to deal with those foolhardy enough to attempt a swim from the South.

There is a mages guild of sorts, but being isolated from the real one, it's a bit, um, different. Essentially, the entire village of Bree is the mages guild, and the 'governor' is the lead of it. However, you must be a half-elf or Breton, and citizenship in Ravenwood is a required prerequisite, for membership.

This isn't to say that they don't trade with the rest of the continent, they just go about it in an unusual fashion. They use the pirate and smuggler routes and methods to remain concealed.

If you need any help with Dialogue or the like I'd be glad to help It would be an honor to help with this.

Cool. This is sounding pretty good.

Looks outstanding. Great work on this, I can tell its been in the works for a few years

Out of curiosity, did you make some of these landscape meshes yourself? There are a few I've never seen before. Great work!

No worries hon, you've been working all by your lonesome for a good while. There's plenty of 'new' resources to take a look at but of course I don't want you to feel overwhelmed with new ideas or models so that things get too big for you to continue to handle comfortably.

Good job and good luck :goodjob:

None at all, at least not in the traditional sense. I have learned the art of nifskope-fu, though; and have mastered the art of taking bits and pieces from other meshes, and creating all new things out of them.

I really should go ahead and take the plunge into learning Blender. There are so many things I would like to make, but I can't find the right raw materials for them.

Same point which I'm at can't do much with Blender. But pretty good with Nifskope...

Keep up with this, incredibly creative concept.

So.. do you know how the player learns of this place yet? Also, if the island is isolated because of advanced tech, it would be wise to have those needed components as internal and underwater ones, so they are not visible to a passing wanderer, because if not, there would be tales of a strange ship and the island would be discovered in time. Since they remained hidden so long, they would know this and avoid the appearance.

I've already pondered this, which is why Winter's Tide is so far inland. The main river is broad, and strong, and has deep channels to the sea. Winter's Tide is where it Y's - with part of the river flowing due East, and part flowing South. From the shoreline, there is little to see but ice and forest. (Winter's Tide is so far inland, and nestled in a hollow on the river, that it should be impossible to spot from sea) Because the channel is narrow, ships enter from the South, and depart from the East. The winds are stronger in the East channel due to the high rock walls, and the comparatively straight path into the heart of the island. A sailing ship would have a hard time tacking against the wind, and at the same time avoiding striking the cliff walls.

As for the ship, well it looks quite ordinary. In fact, you would be hard pressed to tell any difference at all between it, and any number of other ships in the area. Interestingly, the ship itself uses only one piece of technology to aid its travels - a SONAR to sense the rocks, and find the right path among the rocks at the mouth of the entrance. The equipment is below decks, so nothing is visible from outside. The other half of the secret is simply knowing that there is a safe path through the rocks. (In fact, I'm actually considered dropping the Dwemer tech on the shuttle ship entirely. A skilled captain, with a good map and a decent spotting glass should be able to manage the feat without any additional aids.)

Keep in mind, not all of the island has technology. In fact, most of it doesn't - and you don't see anything truly out of the ordinary (tech-wise) for a very long time. Winter's Tide is only slightly more upscale than the Skaal village in Solsthiem, and is sort of a cross between a fishing village and a hunting lodge. Side quests here involve hunting down large animals, and bringing back their pelts. Oh, and downing copious quantities of alcohol... Arbor Glen is completely powered by magical means, and being high in the trees, gentle breezes are common. They have no need, or desire, for anything Dwemer.

The not wanting to be discovered has less to do with technology, and more to do with avoiding "Imperial entanglements"; ie, not wanting a census and excise office placed on the island. It's what unites the villages, despite their differences. Think of them as Libertarians of sorts.

Interesting. I was already looking forward to this, because unlike most modernized mods, you actually managed to fit it into the lore correctly enough and it looks very well thought out, so it should not break immersion which is important. But more than that, you proved it was more than screenies. Your answer is very informative and has an air of experience with the mod.

As such, I feel I can ask this. If you don't have an answer it will give you food for thought and either way I wish you all the best.

You state that these are "half elves" that used to be part of the empire, so I can assume they are children of the local elves of the day and some imperial soldiers or something to that affect. They would have to have been there for awhile to establish a society, but I assume heard of some of the tech from their parents' tales or even had some limited knowledge of it themselves. This is why they have been able to advance tech in their area right?

However it is unknown what happened at red mountain even to them, which means that for a time, no one knew the secrets to this tech, even them. In fact, they would have had to pick it back up, and have a breakthrough that lead to a rediscovery of sorts. In short, the whole of MW went through a tech tech regression long ago, which is why they are a sword and shield people still.

These half elves are the exception but even they went without tech for awhile then and so suffered a time of regression before they got tech, meaning advancement would have taken a long time, and is likely why they aren't already like RL. How has this been handled in your mod?

Wow. Unbelievable work. Great job.

So how will you handle ship mods like MadMax's Ultimate Galleon (and smaller launches like the row boat that comes with that mod)? Just saying that routes by ship are inaccessible due to winds or rocks isn't going to deter actual movement thru those areas if a player uses their physical skills to do so, unless you've scripted barriers somehow. Stating it so is great for roleplaying, but the advantage of MW (and consequently its complication of the implementation of these ideas) is physically being able to explore.

Actually, that might work for a wind barrier - have scripted invisible wall activators in the east channel that only allows travel east, tho it would need wind sounds added and maybe some message indicating that progress cannot be made west against the strong winds to be convincing and suspend disbelief. :lightbulb:

I might take you up on this. I'm terrible with dialog, and there is going to be a lot of it.

An excellent question, and unfortunately one whose answer lies deep in the story. However, it's safe to say that this society isn't old at all. It's actually quite new - very new on a geological scale. Remember, everyone there, with the exception of the founders, was invited - they weren't born there. There are young couples, but most don't have kids yet. Also, not all have any knowledge of the extent of the technology being developed under their noses. In fact, even in Bree, the integration of technology isn't complete. The smithy still hammers out his goods the old fashioned way, Nalion still uses an ordinary skiff to ferry you down the river, etc. The most obvious signs are things like the street lights, and the homes of some of the more adventurous folks.

In the storyboard as written, the entire island is only a few hundred years old, and it was done with a mixture of Dwemer and Elven techniques, and a healthy dose of geology. Talk to Kynes in Bree, he's more than happy to explain how it happened, how the entire valley sits on the edge of a razor between frozen wasteland, and fertile forest, and how his team gently nudged it from one extreme to the other. Agaron, in Arbor Glen, will also gleefully tell you of 'borrowing' Bosmer tree saplings from Valenwood to create his towering forest. Finally, Mordac, in Winter's Tide, will tell you tales of tunneling through the glacier to release geothermal springs to melt the ice. (there are still bits and pieces laying around that testify to this effort)

As for how all of this was rediscovered, one of the founders, Percius, had a particular fascination with the subject while still living on the continent, and having inherited fabulous wealth, was able to secretly investigate the Dwemer using the black market to obtain artifacts. However, he couldn't do anything practical without crossing paths with the Empire's laws on Dwemer goods. His apprentice did, in fact, attempt to make use of some of the technology in a limited way in a far flung mining town, and ran into other problems. While this experiment went poorly, the two ran into a necromancer down on his luck, launching an incredibly profitable friendship, and an expedition.

As for the half-elves, they are really not a 'new' race at all. They are really any cross between a man and a mer. Most look like Bretons (the first half-elves), some look more like Nords, other look more like true elves (usually Bosmer) - but they all share a mixed heritage. They call themselves by a new racial name for other reasons, which the mod gets into. Everyone on the island has a different reason for being there. Some are there because they felt discriminated against, others are simply looking for a chance to get ahead in a smaller pond, still others are hiding from something real or imagined. Hrordis is a perfect example of that, though you'll have to pry to get her tale out of her. The founders only set out one restriction on citizenship - your blood must be a mix of human and elf. (there are a few notable exceptions, though)

http://img36.imageshack.us/i/ravenwood347.jpg/

Just for good measure, how about a working freezer? Yes, the fan blade is animated, and it's running a "freezer hum" script. Looks great in the meat packing co.