Yup, I know I started another WIP thread and I probably won't finish this either, but I finally finished an awesome collection of resources I was looking for, and am able to remake one of older of my works with better models. For those of you who don't know what Silvarga is, it's a region from my huuuge continent mod I was making for well over 5 years and lost. But it never looked as bad ass as this will!

I was playing with some brand new resources from C_Mireneye, Vurt and Zackg, along with some older stuff I have permission to use (Vality7's trees and Melchior Dahrk's scribtails) and actually finished all of the tileset I'm going to use in one afternoon which is something uncommon for me

Pics? Well I left my Morrowind CDs ovr at girlfriend's place, but I cobbled something in 10 minutes just to see how will resources fit with each other and here is a little preview from construction set:
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/Silv1.jpg

Have some end of the year exams, but when vacation starts 8for about 2-3 weeks) and I do some progress on this (and get the CDs from girlfriend) I'll post some in game pics, but till then I'm afraid you'll have to stand looking at CS pieces But I honestly can't wait to start spending some serous time working on this! :dance:

Enjoy :laugh:

Gonna be waitin' for some in-game shots 'coz what you have posted looks sweet as ! Cheers on the new venture , and success too . Gonna be waiting for the playable version if it looks as promising as this .

Looking pretty sweet already =) I like the leaves on the ground =) I can tell you already went crazy with the meshes haha that's great!

Looking forward to future Oogling!

Awesome screenshot

That's a really good swamp there

Looks very nice!

Hehe, thank you, hopefully it won't eat too much fps :unsure:



Sure, I'm really amazed with some of them, thanks so much! These crystals let me use the lore I have for this place for several years already to the max! But if you get a bit bothered by my abuse do tell. :hehe:




Wouldn't be as awesome without you! Thanks

Ok so I detailed some story and combined with what I recently made up.

The lore continues on part I posted in lost town mod topic, so to cut your time searching for it I'll repost it here instead (hope this tower of text won't turn you away, I'd like some suggestion on my story, but if you're not a lore svcker, skip to the end of the post for screens :rolleyes: ):



So the next part of the lore continues much much later. No records are found about the city or the temple (since well, he slaughtered almost the whole population, the few that left were kids who were hidden in narrow spaces he couldn't found and whole story is believed to be a legend only), however the forest has quite a story. On the other side of what was once a canyon (now a wood) there was a crack in the mountain, and inside that crack was a city. Geographically, there were 2 sides of cracks, and on both sides had the city. Both cities were on the sea as well, well it was more of a lake than city, but not any kind of lake. This lake had what people of the city called effect of Tides. One half of the year one side of the canyon is flooded while the people live on the other side. Another part of the year it switches up, and so do the people. The people are built of groups, and on a birth each child is given a name and is assigned to a group. Each group is led by a hero. There is no king, only few men are chosen to lead the local heroes and sorceresses (spelling?). After a time they ventured deeper and deeper into the crack going in opposite direction from the sea, but they never had enough time to venture deep enough since they were limited by the Tide. However after the time, they felt some powerful force coming closer and closer. One year after the Tide shifted, and they moved in closer to the crack they discovered a wood that was not here before. It was the wood a young mage made thousands of yeas ago, the magical trees dropped the seeds of their own and the forest's expansion has filled entire network of cracks and caves, so there was stone no more. they started to explore the wood, and they also discovered something odd. Inside the wood there were crystals. All crystals were green, single crystal could show various shades of colors... They took a few pieces and another shift came, giving them time to explore them on another side. Wizards of the place discovered that by melting they would get some kind of blood - lots of it. Also by doing such experiments they discovered that by fusion they would get precious ores that are much stronger than steel. After some time another tide shifted and so they moved again.

--------------------------
In the meantime:
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The wood expanded wildly. As this was obvious imbalance of the nature it attracted several gods, forming a group. Trying to find out what's the source, and venturing deeper and deeper into the forest, they got lost. After years and years of wandering and going trough floods of tide which now reached the forest as well they became mad and desperate, trying to find their servants, they felt their energy all around them, but they saw nothing. The problem was hidden in the trees, since what they felt were souls of the dead the trees were made of. After another years of being lost they have died. But only physically. Mentally they were still there and their spirits left roaming around.

So as the tide shifted again, people started to return into the forest, getting to the crystals, but they noticed they changed the colors. Some were still green but going further from the town they were getting darker, some were purple some were very dark green. In time people of the city would not come back from the forest, so they decided to form a group of heroes and send them in to investigate. Venturing deeper and deeper they started to sense some odd energy. Few people started to see things, other people saw things, while others had entirely different effects. After bit more walking they finally got to an open area where there were many many crystals. All way bigger than any of those they ever saw, and shining brightly red as if warning to something. Suddenly a hero turned around, and slashed his blade right trough the head of his comrade. They took him down, but some of them fell to the ground screaming, and they started to kill each other. Single hero that had the least of the symptoms was smart enough to realize there is another presence here and ran away. Getting further, and seeing the purple and green crystals again he was a bit relieved, but still in shock, even after getting to town. He told the high class of the town what happened, and people being foolish still tried to send more and more powerful people inside, and all were getting killed and turned against each other. After a while they simply stopped, but crystals around the town were lesser and lesser and getting more deeper inside the wood was a dangerous task. They called those presences Souls, which was what they were, those were the souls of the dead gods. Over the years some people found safe ways trough the forest, and they also found a similar place with 2 sides where they can accommodate to the Tide, while having plenty of crystals to farm from. Some other people started to get some ideas about using the high trees for their homes, and they realized they are indeed high enough for building homes above the surface of the high tide. Further encounter with souls filled them in about the fact that the souls need blood to maintain their powers, and it apparently the blood from the crystals was just the same as blood of their own, which made it obvious that loosing any man in that forest was terribly unwanted. Not to long after they started to bury the dead differently then they did before. They would take out all the blood they could, and ritually burn the body. Hero that led the group which the deceased belonged to used the blood to forge the weapon and named it after the fallen one. The weapon, in relation with the dead, had power equal to the power of the person when alive, so weapon of the commoner would be much more basic, comparing to powerful weapons that were constructed from the blood of wizards and heroes.

Another years passed and entire population moved on top of the trees, where they lived somewhat normally, excluding the fact that they couldn't fertile their lands or raise flocks, they lived mostly by catching the water life present on high tides and gathering wood materials for building. Getting higher and higher, they noticed a region over the mountain wall. The region they saw was a huge round valley, filled with ash and darkness, and in the middle a tower that peaked beyond clouds. Everything looked deserted and dead, but they also noticed something else. The place had static water, there was no Tide, there was no water at all in fact. As the life became more and more unbearable the choice of staying in the water or trying to explore the dark corner that might be their salvation but also their utter disappointment or even end.

Then one day, another Tide, and another time to gather some ores. As the crystals they saw bellow weren't even close to red they knew that the presence of souls was none, so a single hero took his path down. Walking trough the the marsh and flora of the gutter of the forest, collecting the most fruitful of the crystal's shards he started to faint. Seeing crazy abominations around him, he knew what he stumbled upon, and he fell on his knees, saying

"Soul, I am begging you, spare my life, and I will tell you anything I know"

and the soul replied as the effects on the man started to lessen. He heard a chilling voices of many, yet a single being was talking

"What do your people need the most?"

And the man answered..

"Hope."

Days has passed, and the man recovered. As days have passed, the region over the hills started to change. 1stly they noticed water, it seems that the baths of rivers filled in, then the land started to loose it's gray and green and yellow appeared, forming trees and flowers. The tower itself got some life, ending up being brightly gold, shining as the sun itself. This was the push over for the people and they decided, pretty much instantly, that they are moving. Several people called them non believers, and decided to stay for no apparent reason, but the rest of them started to construct a huge arcs. When the tide came up again earlier then it should have, they set those arcs on water, boarded everything they had, including deconstructed houses and strong magical wood of the trees, where they came from, food supplies and anything other you could imagined they had in their possessions. This also includes enormous supply of crystallized blood in all he colors they've found. They finally set out. they got close to the border cliffs of the forest when the shine of the tower started to faint. Several people on the boats started to act weird, and the people were indeed shocked when they realized that in matter of seconds the region was again ashy and dark as before, and the water bellow started to faint as well. Boats started to crash between the tremendous trees at once, and all the people in all the arcs died.

==========================================

That's all I got. Sorry if some parts came out clumsy, I'm pretty bad story teller. So what the player would play in is area where there is no more Tide, but it's never completely waterless either (so at the bottom it's always water up to belly) and the crystals pretty much lost their power and value. However it is still being said that one could still read from the color of the crystals.

Like I said, I currently don't really have time to work on this full time, but I cobbled some more of the place, this being wooden scaffolds and constructions on and around the trees.

Some cs shots:
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/my%20mods/The%20Vault%20of%20Dreams/Silvarga/screen6.jpg?t=1275182013 (showing that they used to have the water at that level)
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/my%20mods/The%20Vault%20of%20Dreams/Silvarga/screen2.jpg?t=1275182164
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/my%20mods/The%20Vault%20of%20Dreams/Silvarga/screen5.jpg?t=1275182101
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/my%20mods/The%20Vault%20of%20Dreams/Silvarga/screen4.jpg?t=1275182130
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/my%20mods/The%20Vault%20of%20Dreams/Silvarga/screen3.jpg?t=1275182198
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj238/Chakich/Morrowind/my%20mods/The%20Vault%20of%20Dreams/Silvarga/screen1.jpg?t=1275182225

And I'm afraid that would be all for now, enjoy and comment

Sweet jeebuz! That was a nice read. I particularly enjoy the part about the crystals inflicting madness. I'll fabricate a unique crystal for you next time I open max =)

I'm kind of in a artistic low right now but I'm beginning to see the end of it (got myself a compass and some new pencils and some paper so I can start sketching again).

Anyhow.

Love the thought you are putting into this! Admirable work.

The way the story was written will probably need a bit of polishing to be grammatically and artistically correct but I suppose this is a very early sketch so I won't do more then mention it for now. Food for thought.

Cheers!

WARNING:

This has been quite a read too, so don't start reading this unless you have some time to do so. I hope this will be taken in the spirit of the helpfulness it was intended to be.


Wow that's a lot to read. Awesome.. I will post more as I read more, but I did find an inconsistency.

If the location of the temple was a secret, how did the young mage know where to find it? I can only assume he was one of them but didn't really belief what he was taught. Also, If the mages/priests were so apt to keep the location of the temple secret, why allow jumpers? Unless there was a cover up, (wild animals etc) people would be able to find the temple's location by the dead bodies on the ground below.

How did the young mage kill so many? Were the people below completely helpless? Even if so, how did he manage to wipe out all these priests? Surely the mages above would have set safe guards against this or aided them with powers even if no priests on the ground had magic. Even in your story at least one priest DOES have magic, and he tries to barter with them, so it can be assumed they have power enough to contact the temple above. As for the mages at the temple, they had home court advantage, so had better knowledge of their area and as a cautious class of people would have set up wards and traps in this zone especially. They are not helpless, for they are gifted with magic, even if the commoners are not. The odds of him killing every one is WAY against this one mage, for he was far out numbered.

Next, even if he did kill so many, there is no way he could have wiped out all but a few children. In the mayhem of a battle, especially one fought with time and on several fronts, a few always get away. And he couldn't have chased all those who escaped down, for how is he to know their number or where they went.

So as I start this next part, I can see why the people believe this to be a myth. It's my hope that the story is a little mistold to them, (like he didn't really do it alone but that's the way the story went) or that some tweaks can be made to make it a bit more possible. They could still believe it to be a myth as it could seem rather outlandish.


In fact I have an idea!

Maybe in reality, he had an alliance with a number people.. some commoners that he told his purpose to, stating he would end the kidnappings, and some fellow mages who upon hearing that the mages had taken the family of one of their own, helped this young mage. He only told people he thought he could trust, so most didn't know. The mages caught wind of someone trying to find their temple, and did not suspect the young mage. (he had pretended to understand when they wouldn't release his love) So they began killing commoners who they thought were involved.. all in the name of religion. Most commoners didn't understand what was going on, and it started a civil war. (but in the tale the mage gets credit for all the death because of what happens later)

Amid this distraction, the young mage and his team were able to find the means to access the temple, since a guy on the inside agreed let him in.. but they couldn't get him there. So focused was he on his goal however, he used forbidden magic to get there. He killed people and used the dead around him to cast a powerful spell. The spell affected him.. so when he went to her and found out she did not want to leave, that he had killed for nothing and she refused to love him anymore; the evil within him took over and he went mad. He began to kill every one he could find, even his allies, accusing them of betraying him. When he could no longer find anyone else to kill, he went back to her and his love for her brought a brief moment of sanity back to him.

Realizing what he had done, and fearing he would soon slip back into the way he had been and kill her too, he absolved he would bring an end to it all. To him, it was clear what had to be done. He had to die, so she might live. He never knew if she made it.. he cast himself off the very cliff the mages had used and in the end, proving the old priest's words to be true.

Anyways, on to the next part.. Hope I have been helpful so far.


EDIT:

Holy crap! I wrote my suggestion before I even knew your crystals cause madness. That works even better than I thought then. As for the "gods" that got lost and went mad, reading your story it sounds like there would be 2-4 at most. If you go with my addition to your story, this too could fit in.

The forbidden spell explains the trees growing blood, because of the mix of magic and carnage that occurred to form all this. And going with my story, the souls of the mages who were betrayed by the young mage could have mixed with those of the innocent, effectively calling out to a god. So the gods come, but it's a death trap. The essence of the young mage, still quite mad, lords over the area and breaks down the focus of such gods.. in their confusion, the gods too go mad and die. Wandering this hellish forest, they are a part of the collective too now, some more than others.

When the hero begs for the soul to spare his life, he does not know he has encountered the young mage.. so when he asks for "hope" he appears to get a reply, because that is all the young mage ever wanted. All the souls who are trapped there want now too.. so hope comes and his life is sparred. Similar to when the young mage had his brief lapse of sanity. But it is a false hope, for this is a place of madness and despair.

Just like the young mage did, these people find themselves trapped and ultimately die. The forest mad as it is by proxy, claims more innocent souls. Thus we find that the old priest and the mages in their temple made a terrible mistake. A curse, magic, and death do not mix if you wish for happiness, but they got their prosperity.

After all, they grow more and more as souls wander the forest, and they do not die..


As a suggestion,

Perhaps there is hope for our player after all? Discover the truth behind the tale and set things right, so that the cycle is broken. Help the land and the souls find peace so another massacre does not happen, just to leave a few survivors behind as before..

Indeed, help the remaining people not have to fear for their later generations. And maybe, just maybe, these gods will finally find a people to worship them at last.

Got a Screenshot of a unique crystal for you:
http://i47.tinypic.com/2hgfnmu.jpg

Larger formation, same shape, slightly edited:
http://i45.tinypic.com/5luxw8.jpg

Yes, it surely will be redone a few times, since, as you may guess english is not my mother tongue, so it's pretty shabby + I had this story in my head for some time, this is the 1st time I actually wrote it down. When I get some free time I'm in for some heavy editing (and perhaps more story). But I'm glad you like it!
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Wow, that's a beautiful resource C_Mireney, looks much meaner then the models you made before. Perhaps I incorporate in the lore that when the crystals change the color depending on the area, they adapt the shape as well. Thanks a thousand! In fact...I just got an idea, it's a part of lore I won't finish yet (or post it public before I finish larger part of the cs work, or at all), I'll pm you






Magic and wizardry was a rare sight in the land, so those who yielded he powers of magicka were also the people who spent some time inside the temple. Not all people from the temple were priests, but most of them believed in those gods. About the jumpers, the sacrifice could jump or starve to death. When I get some time I'll draw you how about I imagined the location, but to short it- explaination: the city is on the south shore, north from it is a smaller pass (which was once darker and stone only). Then the temple was high out on cliff, so one would have to levitate up there, that was the only way of getting on the area where temple lies. The area where sacrifice chamber was was on the other side of the temple, so people who would decide to jump down would jump on opposite side of the town, the side where people could go was not the side where people would jump, logically, so nothing is found.
Some little trivia I didn't mentioned, but as one of them I imagined the commoners as quite a frightened people, who would not go on their own trough such paths or far out to sea except for fishing ,anyway.
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The people bellow were completely helpless yes, only priests had their private quarters, but they possessed only the most basic magics such as healing, levitating was highlight of their possibilities, so as you can guess they weren't really oriented towards fighting. Guards were not needed, since the civilization was quite new and green, and commoners being somewhat crude and orthodox while more important people preserved aristocracy they never needed the guards or had need for offensive magic, as no one would even think about doing something wrong. They were all fair players. Our mage however wanted more, and he was educating about the "dark side" behind the scene. Lore of other lands, if I ever get to tell it, explains more about the dark magic and origins of the magic this mage has learned, but not now. I understand there are large holes in some parts, but this is only a very small piece of the puzzle about the lore of the whole continent, so I don't mention some things that would explain other, otherwise unsustainable, bits and facts.



This is he part where I usually put the picking behind. Yes, I'm aware he could not kill ALL of them, but people being afraid less of death, then what could they find if tehy would left the town, were pretty much cornered in their houses. So those few he didn't killed were mostly children (or people small enough) that could prowl into miniature spaces. Other people that possibly could do something were so shocked and panicked that someone has disobeyed the law that was weak and unstable as it is, since it was not really needed anyway, that they were "mentally disabled", if I may put it that way.
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It is a myth of course, the only proof about the happening are few books, and ruined temple the player could find, if I make it. But of course, everyone knows how times likes to enlarge things. I even thought to add some local sayings around the village, like "he is almost as mad as [insert the name of the mage here]" and such.



Not a bad idea. Don't really like the civil war part, I'd like to keep this "personal", but I think the part where they give him more credit than deserved is neat!
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Some good ideas here, I'll see into them.



Yes, that was around the number, no more than 5.
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Souls of the gods are only souls of the gods, and crystallized blood has it's origin actually, maybe I discover it soon It's not the part of this story just yet, but I see there are ideas and interests, I might implement some.
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This soul, in fact, is a certain god I already have in my mind (goddess actually ). What he meant by hope is, it's what hero and his people need, life above water, and sacrifices on the bottom during the low tide to get the supplies was a terribly burdening way of life, but they feared tat moving over to the neighboring region could be even worse than it is now.



There will be a minor continuation for player to stop (and start before in the 1st place). There is part of story I'm still thoroughly working on, that explains what happened to the crystallized blood and souls (since in time of when the player arrives there are no more souls, the woods are kind of bare.

There will be both towns on both sides if I get to that part in the cs, and there will be a small village of the people who lived on top of the trees. I have a nifty little story about them as well as what are possibilities of their reaction when the player arrives, but about that when I get there.

Thanks a whole lot for constructive criticism and anolysis of what I wrote + ideas for the story, I really like some of them I need a lot of that since I only read a lot, but don't write so often on my own, so writing the lore of my regions is hell of a fun, I must say!

Good I'm glad you found it so helpful. It took me awhile to read and write the whole thing as I am a slow typer.

I figured that this soul was something you might have had plans for, since you mentioned that side story so specifically. I brought it up anyway though, just in case. In my mind, the souls had slightly intermixed with one another over time, but only in that every so often the souls, while still themselves, could share a mind set with another soul or souls..

So although it was the young mage's soul he met, it was the soul of this certain god who was mostly in control at that moment, because this young mage had been influenced by this god joining this collective of souls. See to me, he was keeping these lesser souls, the ones he had killed or had died in the forest, unwittingly caged in his madness, so they couldn't leave. (dark magic led to his death remember?) Because of this, he was sort of all of those souls all at once, even though the souls all had their own minds too.

But a god's soul is stronger, and would react differently. When they joined his collection, sometimes he had control of them, and sometimes they of him. So when the hero met this soul that spared him, he had no idea, but he was speaking to the cursed mind of the forest AND the god who helped him, while the god was in control.

Basically, by proxy, the god had acted through him, and the hero's answer struck true for both, and through him the rest of the forest too, so the forest adapted.

Anyhow I understand. It can be pretty fun at times. I do hope you finish this mod, but if it does indeed go unfinished, make sure to send me a PM. The least I can do is add this story to an in game book, cuz it's pretty cool.

That's an interesting concept, pretty well sounding actually! Those souls represent their madness in crazy hallucinations they would make people to see. They cannot kill directly (since they have absolutely no physical appearance or anything that could do harm, or muster up some magic, but they can play with one's mind, or posses them, so they mostly attack the groups that they can use to make them kill each other, and posses their bodies, since mindless corpse is easier to control then live person. In this particular case hero ran into a certain god that appeared to be merciful but instead he pulled out the most radical hallucinations of all (making them see their hope across the mountain) but is was all just a pointless need for death on the side of the soul.

Now that I see your ideas, I might actually start writing some versions of young mage still being mentally present, I already have some good ideas. Thanks for the book thing by the way

I have some more things in the works... So maybe there will be a tiny release of 'a small resources based on some ideas gathered from this mod to use as you see fit =)

Looks nice.

Thanks, you're most generous! :twirl: I see your block from art has passed

Well it has not passed, but It's letting loose bit by bit.

http://i46.tinypic.com/k4hxki.jpg

Well, if it hasn't loosen up yet and you make such a things, how does it look when you get in artistic spree? hahah, wow that frozen water looks incredible! :bowdown:

Seconded. That is epic.

This may or may not give you an idea:
http://i45.tinypic.com/2djw7zt.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/314qr93.jpg

Those are the result of maybe 3 hours work using Sculptris. (A free clay like modelling program, 0 learning curve all artistic ability). Not very usable as they appear above however, I'm thinking if It's possible to make them useful. I'd love to use Sculptris to make some of the things we talked about.

Ah I see, wow you made the examples above? It looks crazy! Well if you could find a way to import that in Morrowind's format it would probably be a great discovery or something.

One thing that came to mind tho, is it high poly or something? By the look of it, this would probably crash the PC so hard it would pop out the blue screen of death saying "screw you"

Great stuff Mireneye!

Yeah, I made those, it's really easy you only need a spec of creativity. Sculptris is amazing try it out!

And yes, i'm trying to find a pipleline to allow me to get these models into something like max where I could reduce the polycount and try to retain/rework the polyflow etc to maximise detail etc. They will probably still be pretty high poly

Haha yeah like this. The elf like head is 1.7 million triangles iirc.

Nah, I'm not for that sort of stuff. I'm very bad in making virtual things so I rather stick to the pen and paper ^_^
Hm, not really literate in those waters, but 1.7 million triangles sounds too much, I presume
That's also why I never got my way around modeling, tried with milkshape (or some similar name) and blender but tutorials were too obscure for my needs Too bad tho, I hate being dependent on resources and to be happy only occasionally when I run into some great model, or some great people (like you or Phijama) who lend me a hand with a model or two.

I'm home tomorrow late, so hopefully, day after (or even tomorrow a bit) I'll do some work on this thing. I'm currently trying to figure out Yacoby's mesh generator on my fiance's laptop, but it turned out I'm more brainless with computers than I could have imagined, so I'll PM boring PMs to someone that has some knowledge on using the thing when I get some free time.

Here's a picture for you, observe your special crystal:
http://i45.tinypic.com/2lbz85u.jpg