Tamriel Rebuilt is a giant community modding project more than two decades in the making that aims to finish where TES III: Morrowind left off – by adding the mainland of the Morrowind province around the vanilla game’s island of Vvardenfell. The mod is released in episodic fashion, and you can already download and enjoy more than half of the province’s mainland, complete with cities, dungeons, friends and enemies and more quests than are in the base game and its expansions.

It’s been a few months since our last expansion, Firemoth Rekindled, and about time to kick life back into this little ol’ front page. Rest assured, work on Tamriel Rebuilt continues apace, including on Grasping Fortune, our next major content expansion that will bring you the metropolis of Narsis.

To demonstrate this, we will sneak a peek at the art and assets that our 2D, 3D, and sound artists have been working on since the last tally, all the way back in December 2023. As the amount of progress in the past year-and-a-bit is way too much to fit neatly into a single newsletter (despite yours truly trying his best in the last level and quest design teaser), we will instead try to break it down into a series of thematic posts, which we hope to publish through the coming weeks.

This one focuses on creature and NPC assets of all sorts, many of which you may already have seen if you’ve played our latest expansion. While terrain assets, flora, architecture, and clutter items make up the framing of the game world, it is really the NPCs and creatures that are center stage during gameplay. As such, each new creature or NPC face contributes a lot more than its weight in the diversity that a player experiences.

These assets, however, are some of the trickiest to make and take the longest, given they require a whole other skillset – animation – which is still rare among TES III modders even in this golden age of 3D modelling. It is lucky that we have been blessed with some amazing volunteer animators in addition to our many sculptors and texture artists.

So, let’s dive into what they’ve been up to all this time! While doing so, remember that clicking the links below to our asset browser may bring you to spoilers of various severity, so browse at your own risk. Furthermore, beware that much of the information written on the asset browser is not up to date and may not be reflective of what will end up in the mod.

The bread-and-butter of Morrowind gameplay, these are the creatures that you whack a sword or throw a fireball at in the core TES III game loop. We need a lot to fill out a landmass four times the size of Vvardenfell to the same degree of diversity. Thankfully, our artists obliged.

• The dreaded Canyon Thresher is the apex predator of the Shipal-Shin and Othreleth Woods regions. It was conceptualized a long time ago by Maelan, recently modeled and textured by Kaitou, and animated by GrumblingVomit (reviewed by Cicero).

• The Sand Kwoom, known from the apocryphal Skeleton Man interview, is a domesticated animal of central importance to the Shinathi tribes of Shipal-Shin. It was conceptualized by 10Kaziem, recently sculpted by Kinezis, and animated by GrumblingVomit and Kynesifnar. Leyawynn later included the Kwoom fronds ingredient for cluttering Shinathi dwellings (reviews by Cicero).

• Leyawynn added the missing meat ingredient (reviewed by worsas) to the older Sharai Hopper creature made by joanasc. The hoppers are often used as mounts by Shinathi clans.

• The elusive Ash-Fowl, mentioned in the Seyda Neen Tradehouse Notice, was conceptualized by VenuSprout, modeled by Feivelyn and animated by Cameron, then received bespoke sounds by beninate (all reviewed by Kynesifnar). The creature can already be found in the Armun Ashlands region.

• Cicero designed bespoke meshes and abilities for the Blind Stalker goblins [1, 2], a tribe of far underground-dwelling cannibals in the Othreleth Woods, considered vile even by goblin standards (reviewed by Kynesifnar and Ronik).

• GrumblingVomit has nearly finished the Ogre, a goblinoid larger and less civilized than the Orc. Our depiction of the Ogre leans away from the beastly one common to TES IV+ and more towards that seen in TESA: Redguard, a more appropriate source of inspiration for this TES-III-era mod.

• Sandaron’s (a.k.a. Lamb Shark’s) wicked Redoran Hunting Hounds received bespoke sounds from tkurza (reviewed by Kynesifnar). Domesticated hunting hounds can be found in Redoran holdings across the mainland, while hostile specimens roam wild in the Velothis district.

• Cameron, Stele, and GrumblingVomit are hard at work on new Skyrender varieties meant to provide diversity to their resinous lairs. The diminuitive larva is already finished and pending review, while the queen remains in progress. Both were conceptualized by be-a-stranger. These are needed for our Grasping Fortune expansion, so expect to see them complete soon.

• Through a combination of internet archaeology and 3D modelling chops, Cicero and GrumblingVomit brought to life the Rogue Nix-Hound (currently pending review), a creature briefly mentioned in TES III dialogue by Briring and Gudling the Rascal. Mark Jones, the Bethesda developer who created the creatures in TES III: Morrowind, had uploaded what was apparently a work-in-progress Nix-Hound texture to his personal website, different from what was ultimately released in the vanilla game. A recreation of this distinct texture and cues taken from TES III pre-release screenshots and Michael Kirkbride’s concept art combined to produce this unique model.

• Two spider creatures meant to populate our eventual remake of the Mephalan Vales had their meshes finalized by Cameron, although texturing and animating remains. These are the aggressive Tusked Tarantula and the domesticated Loomspider, both conceptualized by be-a-stranger.

• A while ago, Sandaron modeled and textured a beautiful dragon, one of which may eventually be found in the Velothi Mountains. Cameron recently added a control rig to the creature, which is the starting point for further animation work.

• Cicero made a start on rescuing the Black Bonewolf from amongst TES III: Bloodmoon cut content files. This would be a nice addition to necromancer lairs, should someone complete the asset.

Often the neglected sibling to dry-land environments, we nevertheless managed to score a few new creatures for Morrowind’s many waterways.

• Cameron and Feivelyn brought to life sosnitskiy86’s old concept art of the Water Strider, a total revamp of our old River Strider – one of the main modes of transport in the Telvannis District – which now meets our updated standards (reviewed by Kynesifnar). This new take was inspired by the Gerridae family of water skimmers and can be found in ports throughout northeastern Morrowind.

• The powerful Dreugh Man o’War, known from TES III dialogue, provides added challenge to our many Dreugh citadels. It was modeled a while ago by Feivelyn (with texture edits from shivatheo), based on original TES III concept art and that of Tammilisäke and DONlimon, but was only recently animated by joanasc, GrumblingVomit, and Kynesifnar (reviewed by Cicero).

• Looks to the Moon Pie went on a spree of underwater asset creation that helped immensely to diversify underwater environments across Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel. One of the yet incomplete fruits of this labor is an ammonite creature, meant for the coasts of the Padomaic Ocean. The mesh is complete, but textures and animations still need to be made.

• Kynesifnar made some progress animating the Cuttlefish, a cute passive creature for Morrowind seas conceptualized and modelled a long time ago by ThomasRuz. It still needs a little time in the oven.

• We hope to remake the old Sea Crab creature in Tamriel_Data to meet our current standards. Brannon the Ilk made a start on this, based on concept art made by our ur-artist Spider way back in 2004, although much work is still needed.

Listen, we love daedra here at TR – who wouldn’t? Thankfully, early TES lore is chock full of deadra of all sorts, nearly all of which we hope to bring to life on the mainland. Many long-standing items on the daedra list were checked off this time, and work continues on others.

• Two daedric creatures known from AESA: Battlespire – the Herne and the Morphoid – were finished by Aleister, Rats, Cicero, and Kynesifnar after a long time in the oven (reviewed by worsas). You can already find these Scamp-like enemies prowling ruins across the Morrowind mainland.

• The Frost Monarch, a legendary boss first mentioned in the vanilla book Tamrielic Lore and now found in a daedric ruin in the Velothi Mountains, was ported from a great old mod by Arcimaestro Antares with substantial edits by Rats and Kynesifnar (reviewed by Kynesifnar).

• Cameron brought to life the Sload-controlled Vermai daedra with their distinctive hats that were seen in TESA: Redguard (reviewed by Kynesifnar). This is a modification of the existing Tamriel_Data Vermai, which was made by Revenant and Worsas more than a decade ago. Find a behatted Vermai in any well-stocked Sload lair near you!

• Cameron, Alexander, and Cicero just finished the spider-like Perthan daedra (currently pending review), meant to replace our old and low-quality Dridrea creatures. These ones are inspired by AESA: Battlespire and made according to heavenlee’s concept art. Expect to find them in Mephalan Vales and elsewhere in service to Mephala and Mehrunes Dagon.

• Cameron has started sculpting Daedra Count and Lord creatures, high-ranking officers of Mehrunes Dagon that were seen in AESA: Battlespire. Cicero recently provided unique sounds for them.

• Cameron and Kurpulio also made some progress in bringing to life the Hell Hound, a particularly deep cut of a daedric creature from TES I: Arena. Our version will be based on concept art by Feivelyn. The asset still needs quite a bit of work, but once finished, it will find use in a Firewatch quest.

Considered broadly, here are assets for the sorts of creatures and races you might converse with. A few big-ticket items (“creatures” in the technical sense) were completed, as were quite a few new faces and even the occasional rare bit of voiced dialogue.

• After quite the circuitous development process, Feighten and GrumblingVomit produced a stunning take on the dreadful Sload, based on Adanorcil’s model from a while ago and closely adhering to Michael Kirkbride’s concept art (reviewed by Cicero). Look for this alien adversary in the upcoming Grasping Fortune expansion! (That is, if you haven’t found the one in Abecean Shores yet.)

• Following much back-and-forth and valiant attempts by prior authors, Kinezis and GrumblingVomit finally managed to scale the cliff, finishing the much-needed [SPOILER LINK] special bonewalker for the Foul Murder questline, helped along by Tammilisäke’s and Leyawynn’s concept art (reviewed by Cicero and Stele). Foul Murder being our 8-years-in-development epilogue to the Morrowind main quest, this last asset was all that was still needed to make it available to players – a topic on which these newsletters have harped on for years.

• Tons of new heads and hairs were made to provide diversity to our thousands of NPCs: several new male Hlaalu nobility heads, including unique ones for Duke Fethas and Grandmaster Athires, and many altmer faces and hair styles, all by Rats. A number of heads for Imperials, Argonians, and Orcs were also contributed by Alexander (reviewed by Chef, Cicero, and worsas). Many more NPC heads were made on the Project Tamriel side, which we will hopefully cover in a later website post.

• Renara Hawke, Ja’Keel Jyba, and Cicero managed to produce wonderful new voice lines for the Daedric princes Meridia and Namira, fitting seamlessly with the Daedric princes voiced by the original TES III actors. Expect to hear their commanding tones in the upcoming Grasping Fortune expansion.

Just as important to the player experience as the above items are the constant and innumerable technical additions, tweaks, and fixes made for NPCs and creatures. Individually, these are small items, but collectively they are absolutely crucial to making the mod stable, performant, and consistent.

• Several new NPC factions and classes were formalized by Evil Eye, Ronik, pralec, Revane, and Taniquetil, in order to aid dialogue filtering and bring more flavor to the world: Telvannis vampire bloodlines, Shinathi tribes [1, 2], Ja-Natta Syndicate [1, 2], fletchers, jewelers, potters, carpenters, and stock brokers (reviewed by Revane, Ronik, and FlinSunset).

• Leveled lists are what determine the types and frequencies of most creatures appearing in wilderness areas. As such, it is fortuitous that Revane, Ronik, and kari.nu, among others, fixed up a large number of our creature leveled lists, filling them out with our many recent assets and bringing a lot more variety and balance to TR gameplay (reviewed by Evil Eye, Cicero, and Ronik).

• Tons of further fixes and tweaks to creatures and NPCs were made, among others, by Cicero [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], Revane [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], Kynesifnar [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], Ronik [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], KnobelKnight [1, 2], FlinSunset [1, 2], Hemaris, trav, Rats, Osidian, Hopeless142314, and sander798 (reviewed by Kynesifnar, Ronik, Cicero, Stele, revane, Chef, worsas, and revenorror).

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That’s all that we have to show for today, but it is not nearly all that our creature and NPC artists were up to this year – much of their effort was instead directed at our sister mods under the Project Tamriel umbrella. Many of the assets created for it will find use in Tamriel Rebuilt, too. We hope to highlight these in an upcoming newsletter, as well as the many other categories of assets created specifically for Tamriel Rebuilt.

In the meanwhile, consider joining our Discord server, where we develop the mod in the open and where you can come chat with us developers. Denis418 also continues to post much more frequent and bite-sized updates there, so if you are craving for more info on the mod, that’s where you will find it!

And while we’re at it, if you want to help the Morrowind mainland come to life faster, consider becoming part of our development team! Morrowind modding is famously easy to get into, as shown by the fact that many of our developers had no modding or game design experience prior to joining. Not only is the TES III modding kit improving every year, our tutorials are extensive and our experienced team is glad to help you learn. There has never been a better time to join!

For more teasers and updates, see also our social media channels: Youtube | X/Twitter | Bluesky

Huge thanks to LogansGun for the moving pictures!