Imagine a cataclysm so potent that it entangled the very threads of time, creating multiple realities and solidifying every choice made by 100,000 players across those realities canon, for all time. That is the Warp in the West, which treated all six endings of Daggerfall—the second game in the Elder Scrolls series—as equally canonical, even though they clearly contradict each other. This is not how it works with other games, which may give players choices, but ultimately decide on one "true" outcome for the sake of lore and sequels. But when it comes to lore, The Elder Scrolls isn't like other games.

Complex, competing Elder Scrolls histories like these are argued over by the fictional scholars of Tamriel, and provide just as much material for the Elder Scrolls lore community to pore over and debate endlessly in real life.

The Warp in the West may seem difficult to comprehend, but it's just one of the many fantastical events that make up the Elder Scrolls lore. Fans who want to know more can always plead with Bethesda to crack open the lore bible. Unlike the devs of most games with expansive backstories, though, the Bethesda team has few concrete answers to offer; in fact, they prefer to keep much of the lore ambiguous, which makes The Elder Scrolls canon difficult to grasp for newcomers and intoxicatingly complex the deeper you get. There are incredibly heavy documents that teach enthusiasts how to start understanding The Elder Scrolls' history, like How to be a lore buff, which is so dense it even comes with its own guide. 

It would all be complicated enough without fans and creators writing about Tamriel on the internet, but they do that too, of course. Former Elder Scrolls writer and designer Michael Kirkbride, for example, still writes the occasional lore-related texts at the Elder Scrolls fansite The Imperial Library—a cause of endless debates on their canonicity by its community.

Kirkbride, who was the writer and designer behind the Warp in the West, told me in a Skype interview that the Elder Scrolls team did not want their personal voices to interfere with the series' lore. "When we were rejigging the worlds post-Daggerfall, we made a commitment—the writers, designers, developers—to never release anything into the world that wasn't written by somebody that lived there," he said. "The voice of the author should not come in there, and dictate what's true or not. It just shuts down conversation [around the game's lore]."

It hasn't worked out that simply, of course, given how many writers and designers have contributed to the series over the past two decades, forming an extensive tapestry of history. Some of their stories may contradict each other, or contain differences that can't be reconciled. And trying to deal with these discrepancies officially has been controversial. One example: In a book in The Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda's said that wildly different descriptions of Cyrodiil in books in past Elder Scrolls games had been mistakes. Mistakes by the fictional authors of those books. "The use of the phrase 'endless jungle' to describe Cyrodiil appears to be an error in transcription. Close study of the original, badly faded manuscript reveals that the phrase was miscopied," said the ESO book.

A genius retcon? Maybe. But this was scoffed at by many Elder Scrolls fans, with many accusing Bethesda of "breaking the lore." One quote from the FAQ section of /r/teslore sums up this unique philosophy: "There can't be an objective corpus of 'truths' that could serve as a summary of all lore."

Some fans remain skeptical. As redditor GigaTomato said on /r/ElderScrolls, "I'm sorry r/teslore wants to belive (sic) that their fanfictions are true and canon. Many of them spend more time talking about Vivec's dick than the actual lore which many of them are shockingly clueless about."

Others, like UrQuan from the official Elder Scrolls forum, are gradually coming round to the idea.

"'Accurate' is not a word that should ever be associated with TES lore," they wrote. "The lore is built up from many different sources, none of which are completely reliable, and some of which contradict each other. The only way you can ever be completely sure about how an event happened is if you were there and experienced it (and even then you might still be wrong about what really happened). It has always been much like the real world that way."

To allay concerns that The Elder Scrolls Online is abandoning its lore-intensive roots, the developers came up with the Loremaster's Archive, an online collection of scholarly in-character blog posts, and penned by the Loremaster of the Elder Scrolls Online himself, Leamon Tuttle. It's also another effort by Bethesda to tackle the many questions fans may have through the personalities of the Elder Scrolls, keeping responses in character. Take for instance this blog post, which is an interview with "famed Argonian 'historian' Jee-Lar" as he tackled questions posed by the Elder Scrolls community, or a text unearthed from deep within the archives that delves into the colonization of Hew's Bane.

"Many works of fantasy present a top-down description of the world as it is. In other words, creators describe the world in detail from the perspective of an omniscient storyteller," shared Tuttle. "TES lore goes the opposite direction; we develop the world from the ground up. So, every aspect of the lore comes from a character in Tamriel. These characters—like people in real life—have unique perspectives that provide a glimpse of the world as they understand it. Their words might carry some truth, but that 'truth' is often skewed by personal biases and it's always incomplete." 

That's why some of the most fervent fans of The Elder Scrolls are particularly zealous about the lore, scrutinizing every morsel of information to interpret its centuries-long backstory. And there is just so much to delve into. For instance, are there LGBTQ+ characters? What happened to the mysterious dwarven elves known as the Dwemer, whose entire race simply vanished overnight? And why are there so many skulls kept in people's homes? 

Discussions flourished on the /r/teslore subreddit and the official Bethesda forums. Elder Scrolls fan fiction writers also thrived, because Bethesda encouraged them to share their works. From the earliest days of The Elder Scrolls' development fans and developers would freely discuss the intricacies and theories of The Elder Scrolls lore in forums and message boards. Tucked within the official Elder Scrolls forums as well are also handy editorial guides and even writing prompts to help aspiring writers.

One of the most prominent fan lore projects is The Uutak Mythos, a comprehensive write-up on the obscure isle of Yneslea, an island mostly relegated to inconsequential footnotes in in-game tomes. The Uutak Mythos is written by Redditor Al-Hatoor with help from Kirkbride himself. It falls under what the community labels 'apocrypha', used to refer to quality fan writings "that were executed with technical skill" while expanding upon the lore. 

These efforts add to what The Elder Scrolls lore community deem collaborative worldbuilding. "Imagine the TES franchise as a blank sheet of paper," wrote Al-Hatoor on a Reddit thread. "The developers then begin to sketch a great map on this paper, filled with continents and oceans but they do not place every label on the map, leaving large spots on the continents and in the seas depressingly empty. It is our job as the fans to use world-building to fill in those empty spots and give them their own meanings, their own stories to make them much more enjoyable and fascinating." 

Cementing this ethos is an out-of-game comic book script written by Kirkbride called C0DA, which is set far after the conclusion of Morrowind. Exemplifying his belief that The Elder Scrolls should be open-source, C0DA is about how anyone should have free rein over their interpretation of The Elder Scrolls lore. "There's this part of me that wishes that a lot of licenses would just disappear, and we could have armies of modders and communities create their own games set within the same universe and consider them all canon," he said.

As Loremaster, Tuttle prefers to read these fan works at a distance, especially those that are consistent with the lore but at odds with his personal thoughts on the subject. "The Elder Scrolls community enjoys tremendous freedom when it comes to interpreting the lore, and that's absolutely by design. A big part of that is keeping the focus on questions rather than answers, and resisting the urge to set things in stone," added Tuttle. "Obviously, I have my own ideas about the deep mysteries of The Elder Scrolls, but even as the Loremaster, my opinions are not authoritative. The Elder Scrolls lore is bigger than any one of us."

Still, some players are skeptical of the approach taken by the Bethesda team and its ardent fans." I use r/teslore frequently and even I don't approve of this," wrote Redditor Hermaeus Mora on the larger lore community shunning the concept of canon on /r/ElderScrolls. "It has to do with Kirkbride, many debate on whether or not the trial of vivec, C0DA and other stories he did are canon....even though they are clearly not." Others continue to question if The Elder Scrolls Online, which is developed by Zenimax Online Studios instead of Bethesda, is also truly canon (to that, the developers have already said yes).

But as far as Kirkbride is concerned, he's willing to accept these interpretations as legitimate if they are interesting enough. He shared that during Morrowind's development, the writers had a saying that "anything that was boring was automatically wrong."

"It was great as a dismissal of things, but it also raised the stakes, [forcing us to] get more imaginative, like 'I've not seen that before, bring that element in here, put some twist on them.' That's where the excitement comes from, and if it's exciting enough it becomes true," he said.

Even ignoring the fractured history and arguing scholars, with a backstory spanning centuries, it's impossible for the Elder Scrolls writers to fit in every detail—and these gaps in history are what  the lore community is still trying to fill. Take for instance Redditor zackroot's frustration with the Mede Dynasty.

"I'm currently writing on this topic right now, but how are we all cool with the fact that there's almost 120 years where we don't know a single emperor in the Mede Dynasty? Y'all are over here talking about mantling gods and towers while I'm just wondering who was running the Empire for more than a friggin century!" By filling these gaps in The Elder Scrolls lore, the lore community believe that it's helping Bethesda and the developers decide how they can expand the history—and perhaps even its narrative—in future games. 

One last anecdote sums up just how deep the lore community dives. There's a conversation surrounding the Adoring Fan from Oblivion on /r/teslore, and why he specifically exclaims, 'By Azura! By Azura! By Azura!"—the name of one of the 16 divine entities known as Daedric Princes—when he sees the player character. One reply to the Reddit thread: 'Azura is one of the 16 acceptable Blasphemes in Cyrodiil, so it is perfectly okay to thank Azura in a moment of excitement.' Another: 'But maybe he worships Azura?'"

Even how open to interpretation and easy to obsess over even the smallest stories in The Elder Scrolls are—and how more are still waiting to be discovered and redefined by fans of its lore.

Sprawling The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind total overhaul mod Morrowind Rebirth released the final part of its 5.0 update today, marking a six-month journey from start to finish on this phase of the project. By far the most developed and ambitious project in the Morrowind modding scene, Rebirth is a huge mod that smooths out literally hundreds of small inconsistencies, adds new quests, varies familiar locations, and really just shakes up the whole game.

It’s a mod I’d call essential for anyone who ever loved Morrowind because it brings new life to the game as a whole. The tens upon tens of new models and quality of life changes are fine, sure, but it also deepens the game and adds detail that takes advantage of the leaps in technology since Morrowind first released. If you’ve never played Morrowind, this might be a great way to do it, especially if you’re looking to experience the "original" game by playing Skywind when that finally gets to you.

The centerpiece of the 5.0 Part 2 update are reworked versions of many of the game’s towns and outdoor locations, all of which I’m quite fond of:

You can check out the update post for everything else that’s included in the 5.0 Part 2 update, or the 5.0 Part 1 update. If you like it, don’t worry. The author still intends to do more work on Morrowind Rebirth. You can find Morrowind Rebirth at ModDB. For my part, I just want a hug from this guy: 

He's adorable.

Update: Some users were apparently having issues with logging into the website and/or redeeming the free Morrowind code. Those problems appear to have been resolved, and Bethesda has extended the free offer through the weekend.

Orginal story:

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is 25 years old today, and to celebrate the big birthday Bethesda is giving away The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Just pop over to bethesda.net, log in to the site (or sign up if you need to) and then—wait!—do not hit the "Redeem Now" button yet!

I know, that seems like the obvious thing to do but first you want to take note of, or perhaps even select and copy, the "TES25TH-MORROWIND" code, without the quotes. Now hit the redemption button, put the code into the field, click where you're told, and the game will be added to your account, accessible through the Bethesda launcher.   

The previous Elder Scrolls games, Arena and Daggerfall, are also free (and have been for awhile now), but Morrowind is the one that put the series, and Bethesda, on the map. It's big, bold, and beautiful, unconstrained by the bug-ridden wonkery of the games that came before it or the comfortable conventions of the ones that followed, and it is free. Today only, though, so get on with it. 

This is not the only thing Bethesda is doing to mark the 25th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls: There's also a free-play event coming this weekend to The Elder Scrolls Online, some anniversary loot in The Elder Scrolls Legends card game, and new in-game content for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. 

After writing about the latest update for the excellent Morrowind: Rebirth mod yesterday, the allure of the best Elder Scrolls game was strong. But I can’t just reinstall Morrowind; at the very least I need to spend a couple of days finding more mods, like Morrowind Enhanced Textures. It might not have a flashy name, but it sure is pretty. 

HD texture mods often look strange and out of place, especially in older games like Morrowind, but this appears to be one of the exceptions. Don’t expect it to suddenly look as good as new, but there are places where it looks not far off Skyrim. The character models still look goofy as heck, but that’s The Elder Scrolls for you. 

The technique used to enhance the textures is called Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks (ESRGAN), and gosh people need to do a better job of naming things. It’s an AI upscaling method that generates realistic textures without the artifacts that you get from plain old Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks.

Modder DassiD says they made several passes with the tool and upscaled the textures by four times Morrowind’s original resolution. They’ve included some comparison screenshots on Nexus, where you can also download the mod. It looks impressive, though it’s worth noting that a few other mods have been used in the screenshots to make them look even lovelier. 

We’ve got a bit of a soft spot for ol’ Morrowind, as evidenced by the fact that we’re still writing news stories about it 16 years later. We’ve also written about Morrowind: Rebirth a few times. It’s an ambitious overhaul mod that’s been in development for seven years. It’s one of the best Morrowind mods, and it just got updated.

Morrowind Rebirth is a pretty broad mod, fixing, changing and adding new things all over the volcanic island. In towns, especially, it works its magic, expanding them with new districts and distractions, though you won’t always notice when you’re exploring new stuff—it fits in perfectly with the rest of the world. 

4.9 continues this by giving the gloomy, carapace-filled town of Ald'ruhn a makeover, placing a new Daedric ruin amid the giant mushrooms of Dagon Fell, throwing a few more enemies into the mix and remaking loads of weapons and pieces of armour. You can even start collecting playing cards if you need some other reason to go rooting around in places you don’t belong.

The city of Ebonheart has been in the process of getting an overhaul, and 4.9 adds a new lighthouse—you can’t have a port without a giant torch—and additional defences in case anyone wants to square up to the Empire. Some farms have been added, too, since the fortress would need plenty of food in case there’s a siege. It’s an appropriately wide-ranging update, but I especially appreciate the logic behind the additions. These farms and the lighthouse don’t have any mechanical functions, but it makes complete sense for them to exist, and they make Ebonheart just a little bit more tangible. 

If you’re looking for an excuse to start another playthrough of the best Elder Scrolls game before the year is done, you’ve got one. 

The timeline of the Elder Scrolls universe is divided into four ages—except there are also two ages before those, and one of them is entirely non-linear and yet somehow manages to contain a sequence of events in which supernatural beings come to existence from nothing. And then, at later points in the timeline, this timeless primordial chaos leaks through into the physical world and recurs, like reality itself is having an acid flashback.

The Elder Scrolls games have a complicated history, is what I'm saying. 

That's part of what makes them appealing to a certain kind of player. They give you the surface stuff of big, freeform open-world fantasy roleplaying, but if you want to dig for it there's more to find. There's even a recurring theme of the game's internal histories being contradictory because they're told from biased viewpoints, as if they're predesigned to be fodder for competing fan theories.

This timeline presents a broad overview of things that happen on the world of Nirn, and also puts the games in order. Each of the mainline Elder Scrolls RPGs is separated by years, sometimes a lot of them, and The Elder Scrolls Online confusingly leaps back in time to fill in a gap. You don't have to know this to enjoy them, but then you don't have to read the books and yet some of us do it anyway. Getting a handle on the history and metaphysics is entirely optional, but it adds to my enjoyment and maybe if you take a dip into it, it'll add to yours too.

The Dawn Era 

There are multiple creation myths in The Elder Scrolls, but the easiest one to grasp is the Anuad, because it comes in a handy children's version. According to the Anuad the first two beings to exist when everything else was void are the brothers Anu and Padomay, who represent order and chaos, light and dark. Where the light and darkness mingle Nir is brought into existence, and both brothers fall in love with her. She loves only Anu, however, and their coupling brings into existence 12 words. In his jealousy Padomay kills Nir and destroys the 12 worlds, but Anu saves enough of their fragments to create one: Nirn.

Anu and Padomay fight a final time, and where Padomay's blood falls it creates the demons or Daedra, while Anu's blood creates the stars, and where their blood mixes the gods or Aedra are made. That's the kid's book version.

Among the first of those gods is Lorkhan, a trickster, who convinces the Aedra to create the mortal plane, while the Daedra go off to make their own planes within Oblivion. Some of the Aedra realize Lorkhan isn't being upfront about the cost of this creation, that they'll have to sacrifice much of their own power in the act. They leave for Aetherius, a plane of pure magic, allowing magicka to leak into the world through the holes their departure leaves. Other Aedra step back to resume their godhood, becoming the Divines. According to human myths the gods then create mortals, while the elves believe some Aedra stay permanently to sacrifice their immortality and become their ancestors. 

But before that, the Aedra convene to determine how Lorkhan should be punished for tricking them. Akatosh, dragon god of time, builds the Adamantine Tower on the continent of Tamriel to be their courthouse. Lorkhan's punishment is to have his heart torn out, and it forms the Red Mountain on the island of Vvardenfell.

That's just one version of the story of course. The in-game book called The Monomyth is a handy collection of competing creation stories.  

The Merethic Era 

Known as the Merethic Era because it's dominated by the Mer, a.k.a. the elves, this period of 2,500 years begins with the construction of the Adamantine Tower and ends with the founding of the Camoran Dynasty. In between, the elves travel to the continent of Tamriel when their homeland of Aldmeri is lost, settling in different areas. The Dwemer take up residence underground, the Altmer on Summerset Isle, the Bosmer in the forests, the Chimer (who later become the Dunmer) in Morrowind, and the Ayleids take slaves from the local human population and found the Ayleid Empire. The Orsimer are corrupted by Daedra and become the orcs, while humans from the northern continent of Atmora also emigrate to Tamriel under the leadership of Ysgramor. 

Ysgramor's creation of the runic language allows human recorded history to begin, ushering in the First Era and some actual dates. 

The First Era

0

King Eplear unites the Bosmer wood elves, founds the nation of Valenwood, and begins the Camoran Dynasty. 

143 

Harald, a descendent of Ysgramor, is crowned first High King of the Nords and declares Windhelm the capital of his nation, Skyrim. 

240 

High King Vrage the Gifted of Skyrim begins a campaign of conquest in various elven lands, taking High Rock, all of Morrowind except Vvardenfell, and parts of Cyrodiil, most of which is at this time held by the elven Ayleid Empire. 

243 

Human slaves in the Ayleid Empire rebel and take control of the White-Gold Tower at its centre. Their leader Alessia declares herself first Empress of the Cyrodillic Empire, goes on to formalize worship of the Divines, and is later declared a saint.

369 

A dispute over who will be crowned High King of the Nords leads to the War of Succession, and the Nordic territories outside Skyrim take this opportunity to begin struggling for independence. 

416 

The Chimer and Dwemer unite to drive the Nords out of Morrowind. 

700 

When the Chimer learn the Dwemer are constructing a golem called the Numidium powered by the Heart of Lorkhan and that this "brass god" is intended to become a blasphemous new deity, the peace between them is broken. They go to war at the Battle of Red Mountain, during which the Dwemer vanish—an event that's never explained. 

The Chimer lord Indoril Nerevar, favored of the Daedric Prince Azura, dies under mysterious circumstances, for which Azura curses their people to be transformed into the Dunmer or dark elves. (There's a lot going on here and you should honestly just play Morrowind for a much fuller explanation.)

792 

The land of Yokuda is destroyed and the survivors flee to Hammerfell, where they eventually become known as the Redguards. 

950 

The city of Orsinium, capital of the orcs, is attacked by a union of neighboring kingdoms. The siege lasts 30 years, after which the city finally falls and is razed. 

1029 

High Rock joins the Alessian Empire. 

1200

A monotheistic sect of anti-elf extremists called the Alessian Order, who have dominated the Alessian Empire since the fourth century, attempt a ritual to separate the elven god Auriel from Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time (the two are closely connected, and possibly just aspects of the same being viewed by different cultures). This goes so wrong that time shatters and the non-linearity of the Dawn Era recurs in an event called the Dragon Break. For 1,008 years time ceases to function properly.

This is all just a theory, and an alternate theory states that a clerical error left official records blank during this period.

2321 

Western Cyrodiil attempts to gain independence from the Alessian Empire in a decade-long conflict called the War of Righteousness.

2703 

Invaders from the land of Akavir land in Tamriel, forcing Cyrodiil to unite against them, forging the Second Empire and beginning the Reman Dynasty. 

2714 

The Second Empire conquers Valenwood. 

2811 

Reman II goes to war against the Argonian lizardfolk, and their home of Black Marsh becomes an Imperial province. 

2920 

A truce between Morrowind and the Empire is broken when a Dunmer fortress is sacked. In response the dark elf assassins guild, the Morag Tong, murder Reman III and his son. An Akaviri Potentate takes over and declares the end of the Reman Dynasty and the beginning of the Second Era. 

The Second Era

230

The Mages Guild is formed by Vanus Galerion after he leaves an older magical fraternity called the Psijic Order. Galerion opposes the practice of necromancy, and proposes to make magical items and potions available to the public for a price.

283 

Potentate Versidue-Shaie declares martial law across the Empire, beginning 37 years of warfare that leaves the Imperial Legion the only military force of any strength in Tamriel.

309 

The Khajiit cat-people found the province of Elsweyr by uniting two minor kingdoms. 

320 

In response to a rise in banditry due to the absence of military forces beyond the Legion, the forerunner of the Fighters Guild is founded. 

324 

The Morag Tong assassinate Potentate Versidue-Shaie. 

430 

Potentate Savirien-Chorak and all his heirs are assassinated, bringing the Second Empire to an end. Historians dispute who was responsible but what do you want, three guesses?

431 

No longer protected by the Empire, the rebuilt orc capital of Orsinium is sacked again, this time by the Bretons and Redguards.

567 

The Daggerfall Covenant unites High Rock, Hammerfell, and Orsinium, and the orcs are given the right to rebuild their capital one more time. 

572 

A second Akaviri invasion captures Windhelm in Skyrim but is defeated after being trapped between the Dunmer and a united force of Nords and Argonians. Morrowind, Skyrim, and Black Marsh sign the Ebonheart Pact to make this temporary alliance permanent. 

580 

Elsweyr, Valenwood, and the Summerset Isles unite as the Aldmeri Dominion.

583 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls Online. 

852 

Tiber Septim begins the Tiber Wars in an attempt to unite the nations of Tamriel and form the Third Empire.  

864 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. 

896 

Tiber Septim uses a rebuilt Numidium to complete his conquest of Tamriel, destroying the golem afterwards. Then he declares the Second Era over. 

The Third Era

38 

Tiber Septim dies. Followers of Talos believe he ascends to godhood. 

119 

Pelagius III, later known as Pelagius the Mad, becomes emperor. (He's worth a mention just because his hip bone forms the basis of a fun sidequest in Skyrim.) 

172 

Start date of An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire. 

249 

The Camoran Usurper invades Valenwood. 

399 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. 

405 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall.

417 

The Numidium is rebuilt again. Something about this powerful artifact's use results in another brief Dragon Break, called The Warp in the West, during which the Numidium is seen in six different places at once, fulfilling the aims of different factions. (This conveniently makes all six potential endings of Daggerfall canon simultaneously.) 

427 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind.

433 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. 

The Fourth Era

5 

In Vvardenfell the large rock containing the Ministry of Truth that hovers over Vivec falls, devastating the city and causes floods and landslides. The Red Mountain erupts. 

22

The elven supremacist faction called the Thalmor take over Summerset Isle, and the high elves leave the Empire. Within a decade they take Valenwood as well, beginning a new Aldmeri Dominion. 

98 

During the 'Void Nights' both moons, Masser and Secunda, vanish from the sky. The Khajiit, who are bound to the Lunar Lattice and whose children have adult forms determined by the phase of the moons they're born under, are particularly distraught. When the Thalmor take credit for the moons' return, Elsweyr agrees to join the resurgent Aldmeri Dominion. 

171 

The Aldmeri Dominion demand tribute from the Empire, as well as the banning of Talos worship, the ceding of a significant portion of Hammerfell, and the disbanding of the Emperor's order of spies and bodyguards, the Blades. Emperor Titus II refuses all demands, and the Great War begins. (The singleplayer campaign of The Elder Scrolls: Legends takes place during this war.)

175 

The Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire sign a treaty called the White-Gold Concordat, agreeing to enforce a ban on Talos worship.  

201 

Start date of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

If you managed to make it all the way through this, why not follow it up with Major events in the Fallout timeline?

I know few virtual places as intimately as Seyda Neen, the port in the southwest of Vvardenfell where your Morrowind character begins their adventures. I’ve fleshed out dozens of characters in its Census and Excise office, and I’ve bought many a starting weapon at Arrille’s Tradehouse. I’ve passed the necromancer’s tower countless times, and I’ve… 

Hang on, that isn’t right. There’s no necromancer’s tower on the outskirts of Seyda Neen. Actually, I don’t recall there being this many shacks clustered on the coastline. And was that shady-looking tavern with the red lantern outside always there? What in Vivec’s name is going on? 

Such is the sensation of exploring Vvardenfell with the Morrowind Rebirth mod installed. This enormous mod remodels huge chunks of terrain, expanding towns and adding new dungeons and adventures alongside swathes of other content. It also achieves this with such a delicate hand that, if you haven’t played Morrowind for a while, you might struggle to identify where the old Morrowind ends and Rebirth begins.

Landscaping

Morrowind Rebirth was first released in 2011, starting out as a collection of town-overhaul mods created by trancemaster_1988. Since then the mod has received 44 major updates that basically give the topography of the entire island a makeover, adding a truly staggering amount of new and modified places to explore. 

Unsurprisingly, a large amount of the mod’s focus is on expanding towns and settlements. Almost every scrap of civilisation has been altered in some way. Caldera, the Imperial mining town northeast of Balmora, has seen new buildings and shops introduced within its walls, while the perimeter has been remodelled to include farmsteads with working windmills. Meanwhile, the massive city of Vivec has seen its entrance area overhauled, with a range of shops, houses and warehouses added near the Silt Strider port. Even tiny villages, such as the northern outpost Dagon Fel, have been expanded. 

One of the towns that has received the most attention is Balmora. Rebirth’s interpretation has not one but two entirely overhauled districts – one near the town’s south gate and the other on its northern hillside. These include multiple new merchant vendors such as a Scroll specialist and a seller of magical clothes. Alongside trancemaster’s own work, Morrowind Rebirth incorporates third-party mods, such as Balmora Underworld, which adds a vast subterranean market. Beneath that lurks a labyrinthine Dwemer ruin for players to plunder.

What’s particularly impressive about these additions is how seamlessly they fi t into Morrowind’s landscape. These new buildings aren’t simply plonked down wherever there’s space, trancemaster has painstakingly moulded the game’s terrain to accommodate for them. Beyond the game’s urban centres, trancemaster has added various new adventures and perils. These include bandit camps to raid, and multiple new dungeons, including a new Daedric realm to explore, and unique sights such as, err, mass graves. 

It’s worth noting that Morrowind Rebirth doesn’t add many quests. At least, not ones that will be recorded in your journal. Instead, Rebirth’s adventures are less offi cial, taking the form of notes pinned to walls that hint at the location of an item or a stash of gold, or bounty hunters that will track you down if the price for your head reaches a certain threshold. Rebirth also doesn’t make signifi cant changes to the game’s visual prowess, although it does make landscapes more varied, while adding visual variety to recurring NPCs like Imperial guards and skeletons.

Returning home

Alongside its many additions, Morrowind Rebirth also makes a massive number of balance changes. Hundreds of mechanical values have been tweaked, from the damage of different weapons to the weight of items and the price of travelling via Silt Strider. It’s impossible to go into these in any great detail, but the general effect makes levelling slightly slower and the diffi culty more challenging. Personally, I always felt Morrowind was slow and challenging enough, but this does spread your progress out more evenly across the mod’s increase in scope. Plus, if you get stuck, that’s what the diffi culty slider is there for. 

What I like most about Morrowind Rebirth is how natural all the additions appear. It makes Vvardenfell feel as if it has grown and evolved during your absence, like returning to your hometown after years away, only without the disappointment at discovering your favourite coffee shop has been replaced by yet another Starbucks. It doesn’t feel like the game has been modded. It’s more like time has simply moved on. If you want to know just how much has changed while playing, however, keep an eye out for hanging lanterns. These are trancemaster’s calling card, and you will be seeing them absolutely everywhere you go.

Update: Patreon has removed the fraudulent campaign page for violating its TOS, specifically with regards to "impersonation:" With allowances for satire and comedy, " You cannot pretend or impersonate another creator, such as using someone else's name, brand, or content in order to raise funds."

Original story:

Morrowind, the best of Bethesda's long-running Elder Scrolls series (and I'll hear no more about it), is set on Vvardenfell, an island within the Dunmer home province of Morrowind. The mainland is never properly seen: The Tribunal expansion technically takes place there, but it's contained entirely within the walled city of Mournhold and so doesn't really count. It's a shortcoming that the ambitious Tamriel Rebuilt mod, which we took a closer look at earlier this year, aims to overcome by recreating and adding all of that missing landmass to the game. 

The project is entirely volunteer, which is one of the reasons there's no end in sight after more than 15 years of work. It's also why you probably wouldn't be surprised to see a Patreon campaign supporting its creation. Don't back it, though, even if you're a big Elder Scrolls fan, because it's a fraud. 

"There is currently a link going around to a Patreon page masquerading as our official account, asking for donations to keep Tamriel Rebuilt running," a message on the official Tamriel Rebuilt website warns. "This account is not affiliated with us in any way, shape or form. We do not have, nor do we plan to have, a Patreon account at all." 

The mod makers say they've made Patreon aware of the situation, but the campaign remains up for now. Fortunately, nobody has donated to it so far. (And to help keep it that way, I'm not linking to the campaign page.)

Despite not being complete, Tamriel Rebuilt is playable as a work-in-progress. You'll need a copy of Morrowind and the Bloodmoon and Tribunal expansion to dive in—if you've got all that, you can download the most recent release of the mod here. 

Thanks, PCGamesN. 

I have never seen a more tragic comments section than the one from a few weeks back when we asked our readers to share their most tragic save file disasters. Over 200 of you shared stories of despair and woe as hard drives crashed, Uplay cloud saves glitched, or a simple misclick spelled doom for countless hours of gaming.

We've collected the saddest, most heartbreaking stories below so that you can wallow in their misery. And if you didn't get a chance to contribute your own story, do so in the comments.

The lost library 

This one hits hard because the emotional loss is so apparent. It's one thing to fall in love with your Morrowind character and your adventures together, but Bear's story of losing his entire library of collected books in Morrowind because of a virus really stings.

Commenter: Bear

My first Morrowind character. I had made an Argonian and enjoyed the wonders that the game had to offer, discovered mods a number of hours in, got myself a few decent ones, joined House Telvanni to appreciate the irony of being an Argonian and of Telvanni, and progressed very little on the main questline but became deeply infatuated with the world.

I kept telling myself, I'll do the main quest later, and something would come up. When the "something" was the Thieves Guild, I became captivated with in-game theft, and I claimed a home that was empty after I'd murdered the owner as my loot den.

I use the word loot loosely. I was only interested in one type of item to steal: books. I ventured back and forth across the continent stealing every book I could manage, piling stacks of books as high as I could manage in my den of ill-gotten goods, occasionally tossing other stolen things on the floor, but my pride were the hundreds of books stacked taller than my Argonian. The small room would take a good ten minutes to load because of the sheer amount of books. I'd take detours while exploring just to raid places looking for books. Even if I got one book, I was pleased to be able to add it to my collection.

This was the first time I'd pumped so many hours into any game, ever. It was probably 2003 or 2004, and I had a PC that was rough around the edges at best. It was passed to me by my father as a reject for his own uses, no doubt in hopes that I would get my 12 or 13-year-old behind off the family PC with minimal trouble, and it worked. Until my young self made an uneducated choice in my forays on the internet and I picked up a particularly nasty virus while trying to download some free graphics editing software. The PC wouldn't boot. My father refused to help me fix it (apparently he had regrets for giving me my own PC, because my internet usage increased rapidly) and I couldn't figure it out.

My father finally just reformatted the hard drive and when I went to restart Morrowind, my hundreds of hours and couple years of gameplay was lost. I'd just lost the one thing that helped let me escape the troubles of being a bullied, friendless kid so easily before.

Lost in space 

Not all of these stories have to do with losing a save file entirely. Some deal with the existential horror of being trapped in one location, never able to escape. Of course, that horror becomes a lot more tangible when there's a giant xenomorph rapping at your chamber door.

Commenter: Bob McCow

Alien: Isolation is a bit mean with the saving system. You have to find what looks like a retro telephone booth and dial a number, making sure that Mr. Alien is not about to skewer you with his tongue or show you his six freaky fingers. You can only go back two save points, so you have to be very careful.

After a month spent hiding in lockers and wetting myself, I'd progressed through the game painfully slowly. I was escaping from the nest and it looked like I was finally getting Amanda off Sevastapol for good. I only had to take a lift up to a safer level. Sadly, I dropped a gun while being chased by the Alien and it got wedged in the door in a very glitchy way. The glitch meant that although I could take the lift, the next level wouldn't load. I was stuck! I couldn't retrieve an early enough save file to avoid the glitching gun. I haven't had the courage to replay the entire game to get to that point, so I'll never know if Amanda made it.

She's left forever in that lift with the Alien banging on the door outside.

It's not you, it's Witcher 3 

Listen, people make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes can hurt us, but I'm not sure if I'd ever end a relationship over a lost game save. But I guess The Witcher 3 isn't your average game.

Commenter: Piantino

Some time ago, my ex girlfriend wanted to play The Witcher 3 and I shared it from my Steam library with her. One day she played it in my PC, and when I came to play I realized that the save files in The Witcher 3 are the same when you share from your Steam library, and she saved her game in the same slot as mine. I lost my lvl 55 Geralt, my witcher gear and swords—everything. My time in Ard Skellige looking for treasures didn't serve for anything. I broke up with her some time ago and I use this story to explain why she is now my ex hahahaha.

Happy birthday 

I'm sure parents are equally as responsible for deleted saves as failing hardware. But there's something especially tragic when it all happens because they were trying to do something nice for you.

Commenter: Robáird Mac An TSaoir

In the late nineties, my dad surprised me for my birthday with some PC upgrades: a new monitor, bigger hard drive, and new graphics card. Of course, he'd wiped my old hard drive. Ten years of save files, writing, gig upon gig of films and music, all gone.

Commenter Grom Hellscream sums up the tragedy perfectly:

"Happy birthday, son. I formatted your entire childhood."

Groundhog Day 

If you've ever saved immediately before your demise only to find that you're now stuck replaying your death over and over, you can sympathise with Berty Bennish's story.

Commenter: Berty Bennish

I was playing the first Call of Duty back when it first came out. I would regularly save my games but in this instance, my last save was a couple of levels before the incident. It was the daylight St. Mere-Eglise level. After destroying the tank that comes out of the wall I ran round the corner heading towards where you would get in the car. I killed a couple of guys and ran a bit further. Game decides to auto save right when a German soldier pops round the corner and blasts me in the head. Instant death.

Game loads.

Instant death.

Game loads.

Instant death.

and so on…

What's hilarious about this particular story is that another one of our commenters had nearly the exact same problem.

Commenter: ImpatientPedant

When I was playing Call of Duty, way back in the day, there was a tank section. I hadn't saved for the entirety of the (rather long) mission, and contrived to save at the exact moment a shell was fired in my direction, a shell which would wipe me out.

Every time I tried to reload, the shell would fire and I would die. Over and over. I was shattered.

If a psychologist interviews me years from now and asks me why my dreams often have intermittent flashes of light, this is 100 percent the reason. Poor old toddler me.

Sorry, Mom 

Parents have unwittingly destroyed thousands of hours of time invested into games, but Zach Fathaigh's story flips the script. I'm assuming his mother had a hard time looking at him for a few days after.

Commenter: Zach Fathaigh

1996's The Realm is a fun proto-MMO that my mom was obsessed with. You get four or five character slots, I can't remember which. My mom let me have one of those slots (thank you, Mom). My older brother asked me what the game was like and I wanted to show him how fun it was to start a new character. So I looked at the list and saw Mom's two really badass characters, my character, and a level 1 naked character. I deleted that one to make room for my brother's character.

The deleted character was a mule with hundreds of hours worth of loot. I forgot about this incident entirely until my mom reminded me of it over the weekend.

Sorry, Mom.

Double whammy

We've all had hardware fail. Picking up and starting a game from the ashes of an old save is awful. Having to do it twice? No thanks.

Commenter: Kyosho

Christmas of 1999, I get the one game I really wanted under the tree. That big, ugly (beautiful?) orange and purple box. Planescape: Torment. From Christmas day until just before New Years, I put about 25-ish hours into the game. I was really into it. Then my hard drive crashed. I was devastated. I had the computer fixed within a week, but it took me another month or two to work up the nerve to start the game over from scratch. I did it, though. Even made some slightly different choices. It was a bit tedious to read ALL that text again, but after a good 15 hours or so, I got back to where I'd been. Played another 20-ish hours and... BAM, another hard drive crash.

Here's a tip, kids: Don't skimp out on your power supply when building a PC. It killed two hard drives before I knew the cause. Anyway, to say it was soul crushing was an understatement. I haven't beaten Planescape: Torment to this day. I've tried going back to it, but I end up losing interest before I ever get back to where I was. Best RPG of all time? Maybe. It's too painful for me to be able to ever know.

Tower of Trials 

Speaking of hard drive failures, I can't stress enough how important it is to back up important projects. We had countless stories about people losing game saves, but entire games? Seriously, don't wind up like Matt.

Commenter: Matt Pruitt

I once made an entire game in RPG maker VX-ACE. It was called the Tower of Trials. It was short and utilized only the assets the game provided. It had some random elements, little story, and was intended for short-runs about 30-40 minutes long. I worked on it for two years, starting on my old laptop and eventually finishing it on my first PC. It was my own little project and only a few of my friends played it. Then I discovered why people told me not to buy cheap HDDs. My hard drive crapped out on me and two years of work was lost. My oldest version of the game was on my old laptop and only had three floors of the tower completed. Needless to say, my current rig is running on a Samsung SSD.

Harry Potter and the Computer Thief 

It's one thing to lose a save file, but to lose the ability to play a game altogether? Now that's tragic.

Commenter: dxdy

Back in elementary school, 2001 or so, I really liked Harry Potter. Neither me nor my parents could afford a PC or anything to play modern games (had an Atari 130 XE though), so I was very happy when someone left Philosopher's Stone installed at the school's computer lab.

I could only play video games for a limited time after classes, so I only made it to Herbology Class over the course of several months. The game felt amazing to me, probably because I was reading Harry Potter books around the same time.

Once I went to school as usual, but after arriving I noticed it was completely deserted. Normally, entire halls would be filled with sounds of children playing but there was not a single soul in sight. I went upstairs. After walking around for a minute, I was spotted by the principal's assistant who rushed me to the cafeteria.

When we arrived there, I saw that all students were crammed inside. I quickly learned from colleagues that the school was robbed overnight. Robbers broke the window and stole a boombox, whole bunch of chocolate bars from school's kiosk, and every single PC from the lab. I lost not only the save file I worked for what felt like eternity, I lost the ability to play my beloved game in the first place.

These were just a few of the great stories our commenters told us. For the rest, be sure to check out the comment thread from last week.

Some comments were edited for grammar and clarity.

Just between you and me, the first time I played Morrowind it was on an Xbox. It was still a great game, but getting the PC version and being able to mod it made it even better. We praise it for being the last truly weird Elder Scrolls game, but we should also remember Morrowind as one of the clunkiest. To enjoy its mushroom trees and settlements built in dead insects meant putting up with rough combat, a leveling system that needed gaming, plenty of bugs, and a bit too much walking.

In the 15 years since its release modders have done an intimidating amount of work making Morrowind better. The best Morrowind mods are now spread over sites like Morrowind Modding History, the Morrowind Nexus, and Mod DB. Here's our collection of the greats, though even this list only represents the tip of a big iceberg. 

If you've never played Morrowind before it's worth trying unmodded to see which parts you'd most like to alter before diving in. It's also recommended to use a loader like Wrye Mash or Nexus Mod Manager to organize mods once you start. And even when using them, always read the installation instructions.

Table of contents

• Patches and tweaks
• Getting around
• Visual Overhauls
• New locations and quests
• Creatures and NPCs
• Combat and skills

 Patches and tweaks 

Believe it or not, there were a few bugs in this Bethesda RPG. These mods fix those and greatly improve the fundamentals.

Morrowind code patch

Download link

A massive effort committed to fixing bugs and mistakes, from savegame corruption and missing objects to the in-game calendar not having the correct number of days in each month. There are plenty of optional changes, including modern resolutions and an over-the-shoulder version of the third-person view. The Morrowind Code Patch is also an essential foundation for the Tamriel Rebuilt mod, but can conflict with leveling mods like Galsiah's Character Development or Madd Leveler if you don't turn off skill/attribute uncapping when installing it. 

Tribunal Delayed

Download link

Bethesda isn't great at seamlessly inserting DLC into their games, and in Morrowind that manifests in Dark Brotherhood assassins trying to murder you in your sleep until you start the Tribunal expansion. If you're not interested in being assassinated at level one or surviving the attempt but then scoring assassin gear that's way too powerful for you, this mod puts off the nightly murder visits.

The Unofficial Morrowind Patch

Download link

Each Elder Scrolls game has one of these, tidying up hundreds of minor leftover bugs ranging from spelling errors in dialogue to problems with quest progression. If you've ever had a quest stuck in the journal after you've finished it, or noticed “Edryno” spelt “Edryon” this is for you. It also fixes a lot of errors relating to NPC barks playing in the wrong situation or not at all.

AltStart

Download link

If you're sick of the rigmarole of going through the Census Office at Seyda Neen every time you make a new character, this mod lets you race through character creation and then choose which of the island's ports to disembark at. It also puts some basic equipment in your inventory, suited to your skills.

Skyrim UI Overhaul for Morrowind

Download link

User interfaces have never been a strong point for Bethesda's open-world games. If looking at Morrowind's borders makes you miss the Skyrim color scheme and slightly cleaner look, this mod adds that while keeping the basics of the UI the same.

Getting around

Why run when you can run really fast? New methods of transportation and tweaks to existing methods make life in  Morrowind less tedious.

Andromeda's Fast Travel

Download link

When you're crossing the Ashlands for the fifth time or bouncing back and forth between distant NPCs for certain quests, you really need a more convenient way to travel than a muddled network of giant fleas. This mod makes roadside signs into fast travel points. Look at the sign pointing to your destination, press spacebar, and you'll arrive with six hours added to the clock. Mods that add new landmass can make it a bit hinky and I did once travel to Gnisis only to find myself stuck in the middle of the ocean, but it's still worthwhile for journeys free of Cliff Racers.

Run Faster—Faster Running Speed

Download link

Another way to speed up Morrowind is to increase the running speed, which makes a mockery of the incremental increases to the Speed stat you can buy at level-up but is worth it to reduce a lot of the slog. There are multiple speeds to choose from, with Fastest a solid choice if you want to run like a Looney Tunes character but still be able to see the world as you zip past it.

Silt Striders

Download link

Cool as it is having giant fleas that can be steered by twiddling their central nervous systems hanging around settlements, the Silt Striders always seemed underused in Morrowind. With this mod you can actually see them travel across the land when you hire one, though they're less jumpy than I expected. Their speed is adjustable in case you want to zip over to Vivec but don't have half an hour to watch scenery go by.

Sell N Sail Galleon

Download link

If walking up to a ship's captain and asking for a lift to Ebonheart isn't doing it for you, Sell N Sail makes both a small boat and an expensive galleon (205,000 septims!) available for purchase. The galleon has a fancy below decks area you can make your new home, and both craft can be sailed around via slightly fiddly controls. Buy them from the island just off Gnaar Mok.

Melian's Teleport Mod

Download link

The Mark and Recall spells are essential for returning to out-of-the-way locations, like your home once you build one or that mudcrab merchant with loads of gold. Normally you can only have one place Marked at a time, but Melian's Teleport Mod lets you cast Mark as much as you like and name each one individually.

Visual overhauls

Morrowind's showing its age after 15 years, but these mods go a long way towards maintaining its otherworldly beauty.

Better Heads

Download link

The landscapes of Morrowind were impressive in 2002 and can still look surprising today, but the faces were always a mess. They look like photos stretched around cubes. Better Heads is one of many mods that improves the way faces look in Morrowind, an easy to use choice that's low on compatibility issues. However, if you're interested in other options with varying degrees of fidelity to the original looks, here's an old Comparison of NPC Head Replacers.

Better Bodies

Download link

While you're at it, maybe you'd like nicer body textures as well? These were based on high-res scans of the modders' own skin. There are versions that let you leave your medieval underwear on and also a nude version, though given that some enemies run around in their underpants that's more likely to be disconcerting than anything.

Visual Pack Combined and Mesh Improvements

Download link (Visual Pack Combined)

Download link (Mesh Improvements)

The easiest way to make Morrowind's buildings and scenery look better is with this combination of five existing texture packs. Follow that up with Mesh Improvements to get small objects like bowls and candles looking noticeably less angular.

Morrowind Graphics Extender XE

Download link

On a modern PC the draw distance option in the menu can easily be pushed to the max, rolling back Vvardenfell's fog. If you want to go even further the Morrowind Graphics Extender XE mod will let you see Vivec from Pelagiad with ease.

Skies Version IV

Download link

The ash storms, drifting clouds, and starry night skies can be made to look a lot prettier with this mod. It changes the way weather is rendered as well as replacing repeating sky meshes with unique ones, and there are multiple options for changing how you'd like the moons to look.

New locations and quests

It's a whole new world. Seriously: you can add enough content to Morrowind to keep playing it forever, and the ones we've highlighted here are the best of them.

Tamriel Rebuilt

Download link

Bethesda had planned for the entire nation of Morrowind to make it into the game, but focused instead on the island of Vvardenfell to its ultimate benefit. If you dream of exploring the mainland however this mod will let you do it, greatly expanding the map and adding some gorgeous new cities. The quests are a little rudimentary, but mostly you'll just want to explore all this new land.

The Underground

Download link

If you wish Morrowind felt more like Vampire: The Masquerade, then your dream's come true. The Underground is a questline based around a nightclub for the undead hidden in the Balmora sewers, where sexy vampires will send you on quests and one of them can even be romanced. From the moment the club starts blaring songs by The Beastie Boys and Garbage you'll feel a long way from the atmosphere of Morrowind, but it's goofy, gothy fun nonetheless. You'll want additional mods that add a walkthrough book, and if you finish the questline one that clears up a couple of lingering issues like, oh, infinitely spawning spiders.

Immersive Madness

Download link

The kookiness of The Shivering Isles (a classic Oblivion add-on) has inspired mods for several Elder Scrolls games, and Immersive Madness is the Morrowind equivalent. It lets you join the cult of the Madgod Sheogorath by visiting their shrine south of Molag Mar where you'll find quests to recover an Orc's stolen buttocks, defeat a rock and then a puddle, win a staring contest against a rival cult, and other similarly wacky missions.

Morrowind Rebirth

Download link

Once you've played Morrowind long enough it stops feeling uncanny and becomes familiar. To regain some of that feeling, try the complete overhaul Morrowind Rebirth. Each settlement is recognizable but different, with more houses and NPCs. There's also new equipment, creatures, music, and more. Morrowind Rebirth on its own is enough to make another playthrough worthwhile.

Official Plugins

Download link

If you got Morrowind from GOG it will already have this selection of plugins made by Bethesda. If not you can grab them from the Nexus, either individually or collected. They include quests to restore the propylon travel network and take an island fortress back from the undead, more armor, arrows, and sounds, and an option to entertain the drinkers at the Eight Plates in Balmora.

Arktwend and Myar Anath

Download link (Arktwend)

Download link (Myar Anath)

SureAI are a German team you may know for their Oblivion total conversion mod Nehrim, or Enderal for Skyrim. Arktwend and Myar Anath were where they started, total conversions that replaced Vvardenfell with a slightly more traditional fantasy world, though one with some gothic touches. They're not as polished as Enderal—you'll get killed by huge mobs of enemies a lot and hear some characters speak German even with the English patches—but they're still impressive achievements.

Creatures and NPCs

Inject more life into Morrowind, and make those critters prettier, to boot. 

Better Dialogue Font and Less Generic NPCs

Download link (Better Dialogue Font)

Download link (LGNPC)

If you're sick of squinting at the font for Morrowind's dialogue, journal, and menus then the Better Dialogue Font mod ups the resolution on all of them. Meanwhile, if you're sick of NPCs rehashing the same paragraphs of information the Less Generic NPC project has been working to give every character their own dialogue, which is a heck of an undertaking.

Better Beasts

Download link

In the spirit of Better Bodies and Better Heads, this adds new textures for lizard-people and cat-people, making the Argonians and Khajiit look plenty nicer. If you're playing as one you'll have a few new head options as well.

Morrowind Children

Download link

Bothered by the absence of kids? Ma'iq the Liar would like a word with you. If you need to have rugrats running all over the place this mod will do it for you, though as with all mods that add NPCs en masse it can cause slowdown and they absolutely will get stuck between you and a door at some point.

Morrowind Advanced

Download link

Bethesda staff member Gary Noonan, known to modders as WormGod Elite, made Morrowind Advanced to add more challenging encounters. It rebalances existing creatures as well as adding new ones like Centurion Rippers and Giant Earth Golems, and eventually you'll have to deal with high-level raiders too. A few new dungeons and some new equipment thrown into rebalanced loot tables round it out.

Creatures Version XI

Download link

Adding new animals to Vvardenfell is tricky because the existing ones are so alien. Horses would just feel wrong. Modder Piratelord walks a fine line in new additions that feel appropriate to the setting like the Ash Poet and Land Dreugh as well as more vanilla creatures added sparingly, like moose and butterflies. As an added bonus this mod makes Cliff Racers less aggressive the more of them you kill so that eventually the damn things will leave you alone.

Combat and Skills

Overhaul Morrowind's clunky combat with some some welcome changes, like removing the dice roll behind each melee strike and increasing the pace at which you accrue skill points. Now go out there and be a warrior.

Faster Skill Increases

Download link

One of the more straightforward balance tweaks available, with Faster Skill Increases all it takes is a single attack or a few seconds of running or jumping to make the relevant skills go up. You'll get sick of the angelic sound that plays with each increase, but you'll also be able to tackle the interesting quests a lot quicker without grinding around in Ratmurder Town forever.

Oblivionized Magicka Regeneration

Download link

Even if you're not playing a spellcaster you'll want access to the occasional Levitate to cross a mountain or Mark and Recall to bounce back to a quest-giver. Wizards have to nap a lot in Morrowind though, because magicka regenerates at a glacial pace. If you're not ideologically opposed to the idea of making Morrowind more like Oblivion, this mod borrows its rate of magicka replenishment and honestly it's a godsend.

Accurate Attack

Download link

Whether an attack hits or misses in Morrowind is based on a random roll behind the scenes based on your skill. In a more abstract RPG that's fine, but in a 3D one where you can see that spear hit someone to then be told by the math that it whiffs it can be jarring. With Accurate Attack any blow that looks like it hits actually hits.

Projectile Overhaul

Download link

The lovely, thunky speed of arrows in Skyrim was inspired by a mod for Oblivion that made them less dodgeable but much more fun to shoot. Projectile Overhaul puts some of the same arrow juice into Morrowind, increasing the velocity of everything you can launch, including throwing knives, shuriken, and spells.

Madd Leveler

Download link

Install Madd Leveler to take away the worry about effectively leveling and grinding the appropriate skills, as it'll do all that for you. Madd Leveler raises attributes based on which skills you've been using and does it quietly in the background so you don't even notice. There's also Galsiah's Character Development, which is a bit more complicated and can be restrictive if you're trying to play the kind of hybrid character who doesn't fit a single class.

TESIII Sneaking Realism

Download link

Each Elder Scrolls game makes sneaking a little less ridiculous, but even in Skyrim we're still crouch-walking invisibly in broad daylight because our skill's high enough. This mod doesn't make stealth perfect, but it does add modifiers based on the time of day, weather, what armor you're wearing, and whether you have a weapon out. It also increases sneak attack damage to x10 so it's worth all those potential penalties.