Lore Discussion - Changes to Morrowind since TES4

[Deeza]

As promised to Zurke, this is the beginning of a short summary of changes to Morrowind since the end of Oblivion that will have affected the area of Silgrad Tower. I am very grateful to TOYB and Lady Nerevar for reading through the novel The Infernal City and extracting all the important lore points from it.

For a full, detailed list of lore notes on the book by Lady Nerevar, see here: http://www.imperial-library.info/content...lore-notes

On to the summary:

1. During Tes4, Vivec mysteriously disappears. A few years later, the rock he miraculously stopped in the air above the city that bears his name (ie. the Ministry of Truth) starts to regain its previous velocity. The mages of Morrowind all get together to build a soul-powered machine to stabilise the rock, but unfortunately two of them have a falling out and something breaks in the machine.

2. The Ministry of Truth hit Vivec with an asteroid-scale impact, triggering an eruption of Red Mountain.

3. According to the book, "most" of Morrowind's cities were destroyed, either by the tidal wave from the meteor strike, or the subsequent ash storms, smaller tidal waves, earthquakes and landslides.

4. In the aftermath of the disaster, some tribes from Argonia took advantage of Morrowind's weakened state to launch a full-scale invasion of the south, driving out the Dunmer into the north.

5. By the time of the novel (4E 40, ie. 40 years after Oblivion ended), the majority of Dunmer are scattered across the rest of Tamriel in a massive disapora. There is a particularly huge colony on the island of Solstheim, which apparently escaped the worst of the disaster.

So what does this mean for Silgrad Tower?

Take a look at this picture by Lady N, which estimates the area of the Ministry impact (purple), the eruption epicentre (red) and the Argonian invasion (green). Now, we don't have anything official, and so this is just a guess, but it seems a reasonable one:

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3318/morrowind4e.jpg

You can see that the Silgrad area in the north of Morrowind would have escaped the initial tsunami and the invasion. However it will have been hit quite badly by the eruption (though nowhere near as bad as Vvardenfell), and the coastal region will probably have been altered quite a bit by smaller tsunamis and earthquakes.

Now, of course, TES5 will be set 200 years after TES4, meaning that we don't really know the extent to which Morrowind will have recovered by then. I suspect we'll have to wait for the game to come out before we get an answer, and that will have a large effect on how the mod should look - whether the land is still covered with ash or green and revived once again.

However, as a rough guess it would seem reasonable to assume:

1. Silgrad Tower area is probably one of the better off areas in Morrowind, as it escaped the worst of the disasters.

2. The area will have been swamped by refugees fleeing from the south. Although many will long since have moved on, it's quite likely that there will be a lot more Dunmer of Hlaalu, Dres and Indoril in this area.

3. Silgrad Tower is most likely not occupied by the Argonians directly, since it's quite far north and we know from lore that their armies don't fight so well in cold conditions. However, there may be raiding parties in the south still.

4. Silgrad Tower is pretty close to the largest Dunmer colony on Solstheim, so if the Dunmer are in the process of recovering parts of their homeland then this would logically be the first area they would come to.

5. It's been 200 years since two of the Tribunal were killed and the remaining one disappeared. It's therefore quite likely that the influence of the Temple is greatly reduced. On the other hand, some Dunmer may see the disaster as punishment for abandoning the old ways and become even more conservative as a result.

I think that should be enough to get a conversation started. Let's discuss!

[pero]

While I'll admit that I despise that pwning of my beloved Morrowind, I'll comment on the map.

It seems like a good start, but I think that it should take some factors into consideration. For example, natural barriers like mountains, natural passageways like roads, rivers and valleys, what would be dominant direction of wind that spreads the ashes (I'd say from south towards north), etc...

Also, if I remember correctly, Lava from the Red mountain is supposed to be very liquid (I think it was mentioned in MW dialogue) so when it erupts, the lava flows through foyadas (foyadae?). Considering that, maybe some towns don't get such dark fate?

Some of these factors would effect the spreading of 'red' area, some the spreading of 'green' area, some both.

I think that with that factors, map's concentric circles would be deformed to something quite interesting.

(also, maybe it isn't relevant, but rumour is that Ald' Ruhn got kvatched)

[Deeza]

Hi pero!

You're quite right, there are other factors we need to consider. Would you be interested in producing a revised version of the map? It'd be a good illustration of this discussion.

To answer your questions:

Yes, normally it does go down through the foyadas. However, this was a massive eruption of unusual power (it's mention in TIC that the volcano crater literally "exploded"). But you're right that a lot of the force would have been channeled through the foyadas, which we should take into account when deciding how the topography of the island has changed.

Second, you're right that one of the devs mentioned that Ald'Ruhn got destroyed during the Oblivion invasion, although it's not been officially stated I believe. However, I suspect the Redoran had the last laugh since their section of Morrowind was probably least affected by the eruption, along with Telvannis.

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

I read this, thought about it, and figured I should give my own input.

It's important to consider that the flood of lava may have made Vvardenfell larger, while the immediate destruction may have also reduced some chunks of it, maybe turned some parts into islands. For all we know, a new land bridge may be connecting Silgrad and Vvardenfell considering how narrow the water is between them.

What would be good to do is get the map of Morrowind (the game), and apply it to some sort of water physics program, see where it falls when you have Red Mountain erupting. Given the very fluid state of Red Mountain's lava, I'm assuming it reached the coast.

In the novel, the water is described as being boiling. That means that a lot of lava is still flowing into the sea at the time of the novel, that there may be many underwater vents, or both. Given how much water was polluted with the gases by that, the shore of Silgrad was probably rendered toxic. The areas around the sea would probably not look very healthy.

In addition, while much of Silgrad was spared the immediate destruction of Red Mountain, there are other volcanic phenomena to consider. Pyroclastic flow probably destroyed everything on Vvardenfell that the lava didn't get to. According to a few real-world eruptions, this flow of burning ash and debris can cross significant bodies of water. I'm not sure how the various levels of destruction on Lady Nerevar's map are sorted, but pyroclastic flow should be counted among those rings. Another phenomena created by the pyroclastic flow and ash spewed by Red Mountain is a volcanic winter. The ash can stay in the atmosphere for a long time. During that time, the ash reflects the sun's heat, and the surface below becomes as cold as winter in a temperate zone or colder. Ash and acidic snow will fall from the sky, killing many things below it. On the map from Lady N, I think the big grayer circle is probably a fair scale of that.

Finally, given all of that destruction, we need to figure out how much it can recover 160 years later. For a good example, Mt. Tambora, a volcano in Indonesia, erupted nearly 200 years ago on the island of Sumbawa. The conditions I listed above all applied, with pyroclastic flow spreading to the surrounding islands and a volcanic winter starting. In the modern day, the island around the coast is similar to how it used to be. However, in the center of the island, things are pretty much scrubland. (Think Grazelands) The crater in the center is just covered in igneous rock and ash (Similar to the Ashlands). To be perfectly honest, that sounds exactly like how Morrowind was before the eruption during the game. If that's the case for Vvardenfell post-cataclysm, then Silgrad should be returned to a similar state as well.

What should be taken into account, though, is that no civilization survived the eruption. Going back to Tambora, there was once a kingdom on the island, now completely destroyed. What settlements there are today were made less than 200 years ago. For Morrowind, that means the destruction of every settlement we know and love on Vvardenfell, and for Silgrad, settlements on the coastline could have been rendered inhospitable for a short time, but more permanent ones would still be around. Every other settlement in Silgrad should be fine as well. The Dunmer probably returned to Morrowind after things calmed down, and Silgrad would be the first place to return to. I imagine that many Dunmer of certain houses would return to the cities that they identify with. Dunmer who have had cities in other parts of the province of different houses would probably build new settlements for themselves. And though I hate to say it, given the collapse of the Empire, Reich Parkeep is probably no more unless game details within Elder Scrolls V say otherwise. I can't imagine that the Dunmer would leave a city of Imperial occupation standing when they returned home.

[jucklesjenk]

Interesting points. A agree with IATE's point about the pyroclastics and volcanic winter needing to be taken into consideration. But I would expect that after 200 years, the pyroclastics and therefore the volcanic winter will have subsided, but that is not to say that the environment and relief of ST hasn't changed either.

I would think that it has returned to it's usual climate, but of course, the human geography of the area will have altered substantially.

From the map, it would appear that Silgrad City and (possibly) Soluthis will have survived (or perhaps been abandoned and re-inhabited later - but structurally still intact) but Ebbedin and Steadhelm are probably history now.

Would this perhaps pose for an opportunity to create a new city to replace it?
I doubt it would be Imperial since the Empire is too weak (if still in existance) to found new colonies, however perhaps there could be a new Nord city, showing the new-found power and prominence the Nords are gaining and are trying to expand from the North.

[Deeza]

As I understand it, the Empire still exists but is now human-only. Skyrim (until TES5), Hammerfell, High Rock and Cyrodiil are still a single political unit but they lost the whole of the south and east when they withdrew from Black Marsh, Morrowind and Elsweyr to defend the capital during the Oblivion Crisis. Summerset then declared independence and annexed Valenwood sometime after.

I do think that it would be interesting to have some Nord colonists in the area, but again, we'd have to wait until the game is released to see what the relations between the Nords and Dunmer are.

[Deeza]

As an aid to discussion, this is a link to a little bit of photoshopping done (again) by lore expert Lady Nerevar, which seems to me to take the foyadas into account quite nicely:

New map: http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6225/...errain.jpg
Original (for comparison): http://thegamersjournal.com/rpg/pc/morro...ormous.jpg

Of course it doesn't include the mainland, but I think it shows a good example of the kind of thing we need to think about.

[jucklesjenk]

However, if TES5 is 170 years after the RM eruption, perhaps the areas affected are being re-inhabited despite change in the geography, since the land will now be considerably more fertile for crops etc.

I can imagine civilisation re-entering these areas quite quickly at this point in time.

[Deeza]

You could be right for all I know. It really depends on whether the eruption was a single one-off event or if it's been erupting continuously since like Mount Etna in Italy. This is the problem with speculating in advance of the release of the game - we don't really know a definitive lore statement on how much of Morrowind is still habitable.

I guess the point of this thread is to plan for the various different possibilities, so that we're not caught out by anything come November.

Regardless of the state of the recovery, though, I think it's quite likely that the geography and population will be dramatically different. A lot of the towns will be moved around and there might even be new settlements from the Nords or from refugees from the south.

[IAMTHEEMPEROR]

Red Mountain erupted continually anyways. There were constant streams of lava flowing down Vvardenfell. The only two scenarios in my mind would be that, or that the lava actually stopped and Vvardenfell is a better place than we left it.

As it was said, the biggest change would be the people. I think at this point, there will be people moving back to Vvardenfell, and certainly the areas on the coast in Silgrad, but the regions themselves would have long since recovered. But settlements would be gone, and new ones would take their place.

But if Bethesda says that Vvardenfell is still a desolate wasteland, that's their call, and it's theirs to make.