The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

This page details pre-release information and/or media for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

Dagoth Ur and the Sixth HouseOh how sweet it is to see the drawings of a God. The CreaturesArtwork of many monsters and other living beings that inhabit the unforgiving island. The GodsThe other Gods (and Mangods) worshiped by the people of Morrowind. The Great HousesA lot of artwork for The Five Great Houses, including concept art for the cut House Dres and House Indoril. The People and their FactionsThe multiple different denizens of Tamriel and their varied cultures, bringing these peoples to life in Vvardenfell. The WorldMan-Made (or more commonly, Elf-Made) structures and the natural world they inhabit. Cities, Dungeon Ruins, and World Art can be found within.

The Art of Morrowind#

A lot of different concept art was created for Morrowind, and a large amount of it would get published in an art book, known as The Art of Morrowind. Said book opens up with this informative quote:

In January of 1997, four artists locked themselves in a room to lay the foundation for the third chapter in the Elder Scrolls series. Knowing that the game would be set in the dark and exotic land of Morrowind, they set out to discover what a Dark Elf would look like. The initial Dark Elf look emerged over the next month, and the project was put on hold due to its massive scope. In January of 1999, the staff once again met in this room, which had become known as "The War Room." This was the place where the entire team would meet through the next year to discuss what the game was going to be, how it was going to play, and what it would look like. The walls slowly filled with exotic imagery of the land of Morrowind, its peoples, and places. Through this special book, we hope to share with you the images that lined our walls and defined our game. We strove to create another world that would come alive on the screen, another world for you to live and lose yourself in.

— Todd Howard, Project Leader

The following sketches are the "initial Dark Elf look" that Todd described above. All of these pieces of art were both drawn and modeled by Mark Jones, and the render noticeably showcases a much less blue-gray skin tone than normal. This head would make it all the way through development and was used in the released game after some color changes and other minor revisions.

Dunmer Concept Art	Elvish Side View	Unique Bone Structure	Initial Dark Elf Render	Final Version of the Initial Head

While some of the concepts shown made it into the game unaltered, some designs were altered or scrapped completely by the time of release. Nix-Hounds, Guars, and Scribs had their designs changed, for example, while Sloads were cut altogether. The artbook also contains four sketches which were rendered into "initial screenshots". These include a Busy Street scene in Vivec, a sandstorm disrupting a Guar and its herder outside Gnisis, and early concepts of bartering in a merchant's shop, and a player riding through Vivec through the canals in a gondolier's boat in real time.

Concept Art	In-Engine Mockup	Concept Art	In-Engine Mockup
<div  style= "    background-color:Concept Art of "Busy Street - Vivec";    display:inline-block;  "  >	<div  style= "    background-color:In Engine "Busy Street - Vivec";    display:inline-block;  "  >	<div  style= "    background-color:Concept Art of "Evening Market - Gnisis";    display:inline-block;  "  >	<div  style= "    background-color:In Engine "Evening Market - Gnisis";    display:inline-block;  "  >
<div  style= "    background-color:Concept Art of "Sandstorm - Gnisis";    display:inline-block;  "  >

Pre-Release Media#

Bethesda released numerous screenshots throughout Morrowind's development of both the game and the game's accompanying Construction Set.

Sub-Pages#

The SettlementsFrom Dagon Fel to Vivec, many of the cities and towns of Vvardenfell went through multiple iterations. The WildernessTowering Dwemer ruins, the ancient sediments of the ashlands, and the many monsters you'll face along the way. The CharactersThe rugged inhabitants of this unforgiving land show off some differences from the final release in these model renders. Art and TexturesStuff found in archive's of Bethesda's morrowind site from the codex pre-release as well as things from Hugh Riley's website

The Morrowind Video Tour#

To do: Write more descriptive and interesting write-ups and descriptions. Note any differences to the final game and the footage shown in the previews. Discuss any adjustments needed to the formatting on the talk page.

Sent out to the press on CDs, as well as uploaded to the Elder Scrolls website, these seven clips narrated by Todd Howard go over several different aspects of the game and it's creation. The final three videos showcase some of the functionality of The Elder Scrolls Construction Set which was bundled with Morrowind on release.

Notable Differences#

• The Beast Races (Argonian and Khajiit) are still using Humanoid Race animation sets rather than their own unique ones. This possibly means at that point the option for them to equip boots and full helmets was probably still on the table, where as in the final they were given unique gameplay to differentiate them from the humanoid races by removing their ability to equip full helmets and boots.
• The UI tooltip background color is a light brown like the title screen rather than black like the final.
• the Daedroth shown in the videos is using more vibrant colors than the final. These colors actually match its appearance in the loading splash screens.
• The Flame Atronach is using the Frost Atronach model (see below).

Obscure Preview Video#

This video was made by Bethesda during Morrowind's development and showcased at the 2001 European Xbox event entitled "X01" between October 16th and October 17th, 2001. The video was uploaded online during the development of Morrowind however the original audio has been lost to time. also worth noting, while the video is of poor quality, it seems screenshots were taken at this event as various press releases have screenshots of events that happen in this trailer, or the demo they used was used for press releases as well as it's possibly a slightly later build. In fact, Some of them are already on other pages of this wiki.

Notable Differences#

To do: Make note of the multiple differences between this video and the final release.

• The Dark Elf fought outside the Gnisis mines (most likely Todd's Super Tester Guy, due to his appearance and equipment.) shows off a death animation that appears to have been removed from the final.
• The Clannfear enemy is still in development, with early texture work and unfinished animations. Keep in mind, Clannfear don't normally spawn in Gnisis so these were more than likely spawned in by the developers for showing them off. Possibly because of the texturing, the spikes jutting from the Clannfear seem more noticeable. They might possibly be longer. This is what the Clannfear looks like in the final for comparison.
• The Nix-Hounds have purple mandibles that they wouldn't have in the final game. These purple mandibles are still seen in the loading screens of the Nix-Hound in the final game. The entire texture is different actually and features a color scheme that lines up more closely with a reduced file size texture of the nix-hound found the archives on Mark Jones' site. According to these archives, the textures were updated later on for the greener design of the final but kept the purple mandibles until some point later on in development where they were made green like the rest. see here
• The bridge in the West Gash has a banner with Daedric symbols written across it. These banners wouldn't be in the final game. The text translates to "PRAISE VIVEC LOVER HUSBAND OF THE HIVE".
• A member of the cut Red Templar faction, in an early version of the armor, is showcased in combat here.
• Another early version of Shulki Ashunbabi can be seen in the video.
• The Under-Skar in Ald'Ruhn has green fog in the interior. This same green fog is seen on a screenshot on the back of the jewel case insert of the final release and in press kits.
• The shoulder pads on the Imperial Legion armor are much bulkier than the final release.
• The Silt Strider's animations haven't been disabled yet. In the final, for whatever reason, the animations that it has in its animation data go unused, so it's always static.
• A lot of NPCs are missing bits of clothing that they should have, such as shoes.

Gallery#

Early Flame Atronach#

Watch on YouTubeAn earlier depiction of the Flame Atronach. As seen in the Virtual Fantasy World clip in the Morrowind Video Tour. Clearly this was a placeholder model for the Flame Atronach, as it reuses the Ice Atronach's final model, but with a red, fiery texture and flame-like visual effects. The final model for the Flame Atronach would use a much more feminine form than this placeholder.

Scrapped Enemy Types#

This image depicts many variants of existing enemies that got cut. Notably several Ash Creature variants. It also appears that the diseased variants and these variants were completely separate, debunking the theory that diseased creatures replaced them. The following are known to be cut. Keep in mind that these are editor ID's so the names could possibly be different for some of them. Also worth noting that some of these aren't listed in the image above but are confirmed to have existed at one point via ingame dialog about diseases mentioning them.:

Alit#

• Alit_Cave
• Alit_Dusky
• Alit_Hermit

Ancestor Ghost#

• Ancestor_Guardian
• Ancestor_Wraith

Ascended Sleeper#

• Ash_Deathguard

It's likely this might have been the Ascended Sleeper's original name. It's also possible that this was another creature entirely.

Ash Ghoul#

• Ash Guard
• Ash Poet
• Ash_Skirmisher

In Morrowind Concept Art, Ash Ghouls were called "Ash Poets" Dagoth Gares in the player's encounter with him in the main quest (whom is a uniquely named Ash Ghoul) mentions them as being above him in rank. It seems they were originally invisioned as Sixth House soldiers as they are depicted as dual wielding twin-mini sickles in Kirkbride's concept art. The Ash Guard and Skimisher names could be in reference to them being planned to be melee fighters, while the ghoul and poet would have been spellcasters. Ironically, there are some Ash Ghoul Dagoths, (namely weaker ones) that are only capable of melee and lack the abilities of the other Ash Ghoul Dagoths, and even normal Ash Ghouls for that matter. This doesn't appear to be an oversight as one, Dagoth Velos (the used version) is used for a Mages' Guild quest and was probably weakened for the sake of accessibility to lower level players. However, two others (Ganel and Mulyn) which are not connected to quests are just as weak as Velos. These three also strangely use an ID naming scheme different from the other Dagoths using the ID Ash_Ghoul_namehere (though Velos uses FGR instead of his name in his ID to signify he's part of a Fighters' guild quest) instead of the normal ID of dagoth namehere that the other Ash Ghoul Dagoths follow. It's very possible these three may be remnants of the previous ash ghoul types and their slots were just recycled and renamed accordingly because they already existed in the construction set and the team needed more Ash Ghoul Dagoths.

Ash Slave#

• Ash Sorcerer

Ash Vampire#

• Ash Wight

In modern fantasy since the 1974 release of Dungeons and Dragons (which many of the key members of Bethesda at the time were fans of), Wights typically are undead creatures based off of the barrow wight from Lord of the Rings but the word can sometimes be used for other undead beings in fantasy. In lore Ash Vampires are powerful beings that are on par with Dagoth Ur himself in terms of their capabilities and overall power because Dagoth Ur has shared the Heart of Lorkhan (a plot device in the game) to make them essentially immortal and as long as the heart beats, they will come back to life. While they are called Ash Vampires, several bits of ingame dialog call them Dagoth Ur's "Heartwight Kin", so more than likely this was a generic version of the creature that was scrapped in favor of the seven named ones (they all use the same model, AshVampire.nif). However, it should be noted there is a slight possibility that this could also be a third more powerful variant of the Ash Slave, as it does come after the Ash Sorcerer but before the Ash Zombie.

Flame Atronach#

• Atronach_Flame_Lord
• Atronach_Flame_Monarch

Frost Atronach#

• Atronach_Frost_Lord
• Atronach_Frost_Monarch

Interestingly, despite being removed, the Frost Monarch is mentioned in the lore of the "Ice Blade of the Monarch" artifact in the final.

Storm Atronach#

• Atronach_Storm_Lord
• Atronach_Storm_Monarch

Bonelord#

• Bonelord_Warder

Other Creatures Known to Exist Based on Game Dialog#

In the Dialog describing Diseases, these variants are known to exist for certain creatures. For more information see this page

• Least Kagouti
• Waste Rat
• Girdle-Tailed Cliffracer
• Fiery Shalk
• Domesticated Guar