The Nerevarine Chronicles : Tiuj Kiuj Restis

(Stros M'Kai)

(Those who Remained)

http://strosmkaimw.prophpbb.com/

Project logo

(has since been remade, will reupload soon)

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Team:

starwarsgal: Project lead, meshes & textures, interiors & exteriors, writing, ect.

Amberfire: Concept Art, texturing, writing, ect.

The Ascended Sleeper: Concept art, writing, ect.

thanks to Wolibeebee for additional textures

Introduction

Tiuj Kiuj Restis is a project that aims to recreate the island of http://www.imperial-library.info/content/high-quality-map-stros-mkai-map-official in Morrowind, and follows the adventures of the Nerevarine after the events of Morrowind and it's expansions to the island of Stros M'kai. The island is off the coast of Hammerfell and Cyrodill and is part of the Hammerfell province. It is located ingame extremely far west of Vvardenfell, near Province: Cyrodiil's Stirk. It can be seen on a map of Tamriel, such as http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/gallery_files/minibigmaproadslore31gv.jpg. The http://images.wikia.com/elderscrolls/images/3/32/Tam-Maps-West_Tamriel.jpeg is first map it originally appeared on, and funnily enough, is the only map to get the shape of the isles right.

Lore

Stros M'kai was the setting for the Elder Scrolls spinoff titled The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, and much inspiration is being drawn from that game as information as a basis for constructing the Isles. This is however, not attempting to faithfully recreate the landmass in Redguard or recreate Redguard itself. Instead, the mod takes place during the timeframe of Morrowind, which is 459 years after Redguard, therefore much will have changed on Stros M'Kai during this time.

As far as "The Nerevarine Chronicles" goes, this is part one, it's main quest will lead into part two. However the main quests of Morrowind, Tribunal, and/or Bloodmoon do not have to be completed before the player can play this mod. Future chronicles may, but that will be a long time from now.

Progress

The basic landmass of Stros M'Kai is complete as far as heightmapping goes, the focus now is to create the meshes and textures that will be used to finish the exteriors of the project. Behind the scenes work still goes on in terms of writing and other things. This however I will not be posting updates on, for the interest of keeping the thread spoiler free.

Screenshots

http://imgur.com/a/zDQY0#0
http://imgur.com/a/slvQF#0
http://imgur.com/a/3J8Yk

Concept art

http://img255.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=690481277_MagesGuildOrrerycampmapconcept_122_242lo.jpg, it's likely it will appear differently ingame, the picture is simply to illustrate the idea.
http://img131.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=690523178_StrosMKaithespireconcept_122_159lo.jpg. When I drew this, I drew with the intention the bridges would be in major disrepair. But since then I've had the idea of placing a town on N'Gasta, so the bridges will be restored, rather than in deteriorated.
Dwemer Bridge in the Ogres Tooth Mountains, http://24.media.tumblr.com/2f4c41edd786217951e2869c5c4e9488/tumblr_mipn2wKJd51rjqahso1_1280.jpg, http://24.media.tumblr.com/611b2f2f7d1a930428c95c5f882f175d/tumblr_mipn2wKJd51rjqahso2_1280.png, and http://24.media.tumblr.com/ee63ced591038bf675eca4361bd6d05c/tumblr_mipn2wKJd51rjqahso3_1280.png.

Additional concept art has also been drawn, which may or may not be posted here in the future.

Story

Upon the finale of Morrowind and it's expansions, the player may find their fate yet again unknown. In search of new endeavours, they may travel far from Morrowind, to Stros M'Kai. Here they will discover a new land, new cultures, people, and maybe, if they search hard enough, some direction.

The format that this mod's "main quest" will be played in will be split up into multiple questlines, which may be completed in any order, but must be all be completed in order to progress to the next Chronicle (the mod that is intended to come after this one). At the moment there are two questlines, one centered around the Isle of N'Gasta, and the other centered around the Dwemer City of Bthzark, this is subject to change as the mod progresses, and more questlines could be added, but at the moment this is what is planned.

The main idea I've been developing is an investigation of the book, "N'Gasta Kvata Kvakis!", which was written by the Sload Necromancer N'Gasta on the Isle of the same name before the events of Redguard. The player would go to Stros M'Kai and then investigate the ruins of the old Necromancer's tower to find a conspiracy of dark Sload and Daedric magic still present on the Island, and find out N'Gasta's evils were never really ended even after Cyrus killed him, or so he thought. The actions of the player will ultimately decide the fate of the Isle of N'Gasta.

Secondly, the player embarks on a journey to Stros M'Kai to investigate the Dwemer ruins on the island, which are being studied by the Mages Guild there. Here they will find the repaired and operational Orrery, and a Dwemer mining city which since the events of Redguard has been discovered to be much larger than previously thought.

New Lore

It has been 459 years since the events of Redguard, and much has changed over this period of time. Saintsport has rebuilt and expanded, and is larger and more present in the island's politics and economy.
Since the death of N'Gasta, the Isle of N'Gasta has been reclaimed by the locals, and a town has been built on the island. Unfortunately, dark magic used by the Necromancer N'Gasta didn't end when they were killed by Cyrus. As Daedric Princes will, and Sload alike, the Isle remains cursed, even after the vile undead were slain for good.
The Dwemer Orrery was restored by Cyrus in the events of Redguard, and now remains maintained and studied by the Mages Guild, who have set up permanent camp outside the site.
The Dwemer mines on the island have since been explored further, and have discovered to be much larger than previously believed. Many dangers, treasures and much knowledge alike lies in these ruins.
The Yokudan camp on the island was abandoned after it was destroyed before the events of Redguard, now all that remains are ruins.

Art Style and intent

Many years have passed since Morrowind was released. Even more have passed since Redguard was released. In order to live up to the standards in graphics today, the textures and meshes in this mod will be of greater polycount and resolution than that of Vanilla Morrowind. I am uncertain as to the extent that this will be, as I always do try to optimize my meshes as much as I can, but it should be expected that the art in this will look more, "recent", than the art in vanilla Morrowind or Redguard.

Asides from technical details, Stros M'Kai is an entirely new land of a different province. This means new architecture, new flora, and nearly new everything. The architecture will follow much inspiration from Redguard, but I may also draw inspiration from other sources, such as Skyrim, since the Dwemer ruins in Skyrim resemble the Dwemer ruins on Stros M'Kai quite a bit in terms of the Stonework and such used.

That is all. If you have questions or comments, please don't hold back!

Sounds excellent. But why not combine the first two story ideas? I see no reason not to let the player get involved in the island's troubles, AND investigate the depths of the Dwemer ruins. I'm sure there's ways for the ruins to be connected to what's going on.

I didn't really specify, but that's what I intended to do. The Dwemer and Kvata Kavis are reasons to go to the island, but you'll have the option to do all these quests once there, even if you went there without specific intent, i.e. a quest to go there didn't start from Vvardenfell.

This sounds awesome SWG! I love that you've put so much thought into this; and are planning on making a lot of new stuff for the area. Don't forget that there are a lot of resources (especially for Oblivion, some of which have been converted to TES3 format) which you may be able to utilize on the island.

Looking forward to seeing more!

I was going to notify you about the Sload resource on PES, but then I saw that you were credited for some of the textures so nevermind /tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

Interesting project. I might be convinced to do a bit of texture work for you once you get into the thick of it.

What a great project idea. I really look forward to seeing the end project, and being a modder as capable as you are I have no doubts about the finished quality that we will get!

Best of luck!

Awesome.

Have you considered getting in touch with http://www.gamesas.com/user/40957-lady-nerevar/? She asks that people get in touch with her before using any assets from the http://hammerfell.daryam.com/ mod for Oblivion. I know that any assets would need converting to Morrowind's NIF file version but based on the Art Book of concept art there was some awesome work done on a Redguard theme for Hammerfell.

[Edit: Forum formatting weirdness]

Really nice, a lot of thought has been put into this. To add to the resource part, if you're willing to use them that is, there's http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10312 made for Skyrim, maybe you find something useful. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> Looking forward to see how this goes.

Question: Do you know Esperanto?

Looking forward to this. Looks amazing for now. KUTGW!

Well... we can pretend that the Sload know it /tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':P' />

Mmmm... It's just that the Book in question is merely a translation of a very mundane Esperanto text about an online language group. The title of this thread contains "tiuj kiuj restis" which means "Those who stayed", so I presume that SWG knows something about it. I am curious as whether it will play a further role in this mod.

Yes, I am aware.

I have one word....YES

Well, I'm tickled to see Esperanto show up on these forums, if in only a small way /biggrin.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />.

Yeah, I helped make that Sload when it came out, I may end up making a ghost version of it or something for the mod, but I'm undecided weather I actually want to physically put the Sload in any form into this mod.

As for texturing, go right ahead. Feel free to PM me or something if you ever do feel like helping out, I'd love to have you on board. /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':smile:' />

Oh wow! I looked through that art book and there's plenty of concepts I'd love to draw inspiration from. I'm not sure what usable resources from Oblivion's Hammefell I'd be able to use in this, since Stros M'Kai in particular has a distinct look to it's architecture and geography, but I'll certainly look into it more.

Yes, the title "Tiuj Kiuj Restis" is an Esperanto translation of the phrase "Those Who Remained" intended to be interpreted as if it were the Sload language. As for the name itself, it comes from the lore that Stros M'Kai, The Chain, Herne, and Cespar were some of the first islands to be discovered and settled when the Yokudans sailed to Tamriel. While most of the population continued migrating and eventually populated Hammerfell, "Those Who Remained" were the ones who built up the settlements on the islands. The reason it's written in Sload is because of the Sload influence of N'Gasta and that it's quite likely the Sload witnessed the entire migration of the Yokudans from Yokuda to Hammerfell.


Over the past couple days I drew some very rough concept art pieces that are simply intended to note ideas, but I'll share them here anyways.
http://img255.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=690481277_MagesGuildOrrerycampmapconcept_122_242lo.jpg, it's likely it will appear differently ingame, the picture is simply to illustrate the idea.
http://img131.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=690523178_StrosMKaithespireconcept_122_159lo.jpg. When I drew this, I drew with the intention the bridges would be in major disrepair. But since then I've had the idea of placing a town on N'Gasta, so the bridges will be restored, rather than in deteriorated.

What's this? No new replies? Well ok then, I'll post some more progress.

I spent some time in the CS Smoothing out the transition from ocean to land around the borders of the islands and where my heightmap ends, and I placed a couple placeholder objects for a sense of scale. http://i.imgur.com/h94lyU2.jpg. While the islands will be of a smaller scale then they were in Redguard, I will certainly be making up for this in the detail and art, as well as quests and story. Not to mention there will be a number of new areas for the player to explore that were not in Redguard, such as the crypts of the Isle of N'Gasta, the town of N'Gasta and the Yokudan settlement, or the Dwemer ruins on the island, which will be much larger than they were in Redguard.

Of course, you won't need to have played Redguard or even knew what happened in Redguard to play this mod. I for one have not played Redguard myself, but I am doing my best to learn the lore and story revolving it.

EDIT: Oh, also, http://postimage.org/image/ggt6ri0ut/full/.

EDIT 2: Updated first post

Well, considering that Vvardenfell was scaled down as well. I don't think it should be an issue, trading scale for detail. I'm sad to say I haven't played Redguard either, though I've always been interested in Cyrus as a character. Will he be featured in anyway in the mod? Even if only with a statue, memorial, book or something?

I am excited.

Quick question, how are we suppose to get their and I thought I heard you say in a different thread that their was going to be a unique plant on the isle. If true would it be possible to make the plant be worth more money in Vvardenfell than it is on the isle we get it from, since it can't be found anywhere else in Tamriel( I hope u understand what I mean).

Cyrus greatly affected Stros M'Kai, so he will definitely be mentioned in the mod more than once, and his actions will have had an effect on the island. For example, (spoilers) the Governor's death lead to more lawful treatment of the Dwemer ruins on the site, as far as Morrowind era law goes, and him killing N'Gasta permanently killed the undead on the Isle named after him, opening it up for settlement. He also restored the Dwemer Orrery, which is now maintained and studied by the Mages Guild on the island.

(spoiler warning, though this may change)
When the player finds the book "N'Gasta Kvata Kvakis!", a quest will start which will lead the player to investigate Stros M'Kai. You can travel there at a hefty price from Vvardenfell, or find your own way there (though it will be years before the player will be able to do this without use of the console, you should be able to travel to Stirk then take a boat from there).

While it is possible to change an item's value via script, it would be more trouble than it would be worth. I don't recall saying I would add a unique plant on the isle that was unique to the isle specifically. While there will be new flora on Stros M'Kai, it is flora that is native to the rest of Hammerfell as well.

My brain was being stupid, but I found where I had read about the rare plant found only on the island.
Don't know if this is right since I have never played Redguard http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Stros_M%27Kai.

Awesome, I'm glad you plan on working that in!

I think smaller scale is actually good news.
I would trade detail for size any day.
There's nothing more boring than a huge landmass with nothing to do.
I wish you the best of luck with this massive project!
Sounds awesome!

Maybe sunken town far away to the northwest?

Will be keeping an eye on this! Looking good and sounding even better swg. Keep it up /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />