Category Archives: The Elder Scrolls

June HOF Mods

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Planet Elder Scrolls had announced last month’s Hall of Fame mods for both Oblivion and Morrowind. Per usual, for mods to reach this prestigious status they must be downloaded at least 5,000 times, have been available for at least three months, and receive a minimum of 25 votes with a score of 8 or higher. Here are the six mods that made the cut in the month of June:

For Morrowind

  • Darknut’s Creature Textures Morrowind by Darknut: A new texture update that covers most of the creatures in Morrowind
  • Blasphemous Revenants by Fliggerty and Friends: Companion mod that puts you as an apprentice to to an aging necromancer. Here your character will learn the art of gathering corpses, preparing them for arcane rituals, and summoning and commanding vast armies of the dead.
  • Oblivion-Style Spellcasting by Fliggerty: This mod enables you to cast spells while your weapon is drawn. The mod requires that you have both the Bloodmoon and Tribunal expansions.

For Oblivion

  • Nascosto Isles 3 by janb: Landmass mod full of unique houses, caves, dungeons, and ruins to explore. Here you’ll learn about the Aylmer, who were the first inhabitants of the Nascosto Isles, and save the island from an impending attack, while battling in Pirate Cove.
  • Oblivion Mod Makers Manual V1.4 by Lord_Gannondorf: Helpful manual for modding Oblivion. Requires MS Word or a PDF viewer.
  • Let the People Drink! by Qazaaq and Khornate: This mod adds new fountains and a aqueduct system to Imperial City.

Congrats to all the new inductees!

Mod interview: Gez

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This week’s mod interview is with Gez — who recently was named the Head of Concept Art for the mod project Tamriel Rebuilt. His nickname, which he uses on several sites, is a simple nickname from his initials (Gaël Zimmermann). Gez lives in France where he studies English. He’s looking to head out to the University of Birmingham next year.

On with the interview…

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New competition for new Morrowind modders

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For you Morrowind modders out there, here’s a friendly competition you might be interested in. One of our BGS forum members, Fliggerty, has started up a competition intended to help up-and-coming Morrowind modders showcase their skills.

So how do you determine if your a modding noob or an experienced veteran? For the purpose of this competition, you must be a modder that ”is not a Hall of Fame modder at Planet Elder Scrolls, and has not released a mod that has attained a cumulative download count of 5000 for any single mod.”

In the competition, modders will be working on creating Housing and/or Hireable Mercenaries mods. For more details and rules, visit this thread in the forums.

Good luck!

TES Nexus’ File of the Month for May

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Here’s a quick look at last month’s most popular mod over at TES Nexus — jojjo’s New Frostmourne Sword. Inspired by World of Warcraft, jojjo created the sword from scratch. I gotta say, it looks pretty amazing!

To check out the rest of this month’s top 5, head here. And don’t forget if you’re registered, you can start voting for June’s top files.

Mod Interview: Kat and Tommy

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This week’s mod interview is with the tag team duo of Kat and Tommy. According to Kat, she spends her free time in Orwell, England distributing stale bread crusts to deserving peasantry and helping out at the local home for Retired Eel Teasers. She also received high praise and acclaim for her performance as a tree in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’

Meanwhile, Tommy lives in the Netherlands where he does IT work on IBM mainframes. He graciously accepts Kat’s stale bread.

On to the interview…

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We adore fan art

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It’s been a few months since we last featured Fan Art from the blog, so when I received this homage to the Adoring Fan from Raven Hall, I couldn’t resist sharing it.

If you haven’t checked out the Fan Art section on Bethblog, it’s over on the right column of the blog. As always, if you’ve got fan art to share with us (whether it’s Star Trek, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc.), shoot us an email.

New Hall of Famers at Planet Elder Scrolls

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Over on Planet Elder Scolls, the site has announced their latest Hall of Fame entries for the months of April and May. Per usual, to reach “Hall of Fame” status, a mod must receive a minimum of 25 votes with a score of 8 or higher and have been available for at least three months, as well as having been downloaded at least 5,000 times. Typically, only the top three mods for Morrowind and Oblivion qualify, but since there were no announcements in April, this time around, four mods qualified for Morrowind and six mods for Oblivion.

Before I share the mods that met the criteria, it’s also worth noting an honorary entry was given to Lord Devil’s housing mod, Cragonmoor (shown above). Lord Devil (also known as Quatloos), passed away recently. She will be remembered as a friend and valued member of the Morrowind modding community, and we send our condolences to her family and friends.

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Mod Interview: Vality

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Welcome back to another Elder Scrolls Mod Interview. This week we’re chatting with Morrowind modder Vality. Hailing from Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Vality is currently in school with aspirations of working as a Network Technician/Administrator. When he’s not modding, he spends his time drawing, writing, listening to and playing music, driving, biking, hiking and camping. Wow, sounds like he’s got a lot of time for fun stuff.

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This IS History

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In case you missed it, CVG put up a two-part feature over the weekend titled “The complete history of open-world games.” The staff at PC Zone take a look at the history and appeal of the genre, while talking with folks that make the games — including Todd Howard. Here’s a sample from the section entitled “Grand Theft Scrolls” in part 1:

Beginning with Arena (which you can now download for free at the game’s 10th Anniversary page at elderscrolls.com), which was followed by Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and many expansion packs, Bethesda’s series takes in the empire of Tamriel and otherworldly realms such as the Shivering Isles, with the player character able to be a number of races (including Orc, Dark Elf, Imperial and Nord) and classes (such as knight, bard and sorcerer).

“I think that perhaps, the Elder Scrolls series has most of all pushed the idea that massive scale can also be manageable,” says Howard. “That all the little details can be done to an extreme, yet the whole world can still fit together and tell its own story as you wander through it.”

To read the rest, check out these links (part 1) (part 2).