50 Fun Facts About Morrowind

House Redoran's councilors in Morrowind's Ald'ruhn live inside the hollowed shell of which enormous ancient creature?

A giant crab called Skar left the shell behind, and the manor district built inside it is known as Under-Skar. Daily ash storms from Red Mountain batter the town outside.

On which volcanic island, home to Red Mountain, does the main story of Morrowind take place?

Vvardenfell is only one district of the Morrowind province, a limit the developers chose so that every area could be built by hand. Earlier games in the series generated their dungeons at random.

Which giant insect-like creature carries paying passengers between the towns of Morrowind as a kind of taxi?

Silt strider drivers, known as caravaners, steer the towering animal by working its exposed organs from a compartment hollowed out of its shell.

Which immortal villain, leader of the Sixth House, awaits the player inside Red Mountain in Morrowind's main quest?

Dagoth Ur cannot be killed for good until the artifact that feeds his power is destroyed, so the first victory over him does not last. IGN ranked him among its top 100 video game villains.

Which star of a 1970s superhero TV series voiced the female Nords in Morrowind?

Lynda Carter, television's Wonder Woman, was promoted by Bethesda as part of the cast. The game gives each race its own voices, a touch some reviewers praised.

The wizard-lords of House Telvanni in Morrowind live in towers that are magically grown from what?

Giant mushrooms form entire Telvanni towns, shaped by magic into homes, shops and inns. The House's seat, Sadrith Mora, has a name that means Forest of the Mushrooms.

Which illegal drug, refined from moon sugar, makes most shopkeepers in Morrowind refuse to trade with the player?

Skooma is banned by the Empire in Morrowind, yet criminals pass it around almost like money. Carrying its raw ingredient gets a customer turned away just the same.

What do the grey-skinned, red-eyed Dark Elves who are native to Morrowind call themselves?

Dunmer is the name the Dark Elves prefer, and in the traditional telling they were a people called the Chimer until a Daedric curse turned their skin ashen.

Which composer wrote the soundtrack for Morrowind and later scored both Oblivion and Skyrim?

Jeremy Soule kept the score soft and minimalist on purpose, because the music loops constantly during play. His earlier work included Total Annihilation and Icewind Dale.

Morrowind launched in 2002 on Windows PCs and on which one games console?

Microsoft Xbox owners kept buying it: the game stayed among the console's ten best sellers a year after launch, a feat matched only by Halo.

Which aggressive Morrowind creature spots travelers from far away and often descends on them in swarms?

Cliff racer swarms form because the animals see a long way and trail the player unnoticed. Their zig-zag flight paths can also leave them stuck in trees.

Which island does Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion add, a setting revisited in Skyrim's Dragonborn add-on?

Solstheim once belonged to Skyrim, and in later lore its High King gave the island to Morrowind as a refuge for Dark Elves fleeing an eruption of Red Mountain.

Which creature can players become in Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion, a feature promised for the base game but cut?

A werewolf is made by catching the disease Sanies Lupinus and leaving it uncured for three days. After that the player changes shape nightly, whatever the moons are doing.

Which lost race, called Dwarves in the Empire, left steam-filled ruins across Morrowind before vanishing all at once?

Dwemer everywhere disappeared in an instant during the Battle of Red Mountain, which set off many theories. Their name is usually read as the Deep or Secretive People.

Which spell effect do visitors need in Morrowind to reach the upper rooms of House Telvanni's wizard towers?

Levitation was required to ascend every Telvanni councilor's tower on the island. One such wizard ruled from a tower in each of the House's five main towns.

Which Bethesda project leader on Morrowind went on to direct Fallout 3 and Skyrim?

Todd Howard later said the sequel, set in a more welcoming fantasy world, gave up some of what made Morrowind special: the wonder of discovery.

Which divine artifact beneath Red Mountain must the Nerevarine destroy to finish Morrowind's main quest?

The Heart of Lorkhan made both the villain and the three living gods of the Tribunal immortal, so destroying it leaves those gods mortal again.

Which Blades spymaster, who looks like a harmless old drug user, recruits the player as an agent in Morrowind?

Caius Cosades is the most senior Blades agent on the island, and midway through the story he is recalled to the Imperial City and leaves the game for good.

Which Daedric Prince of Dawn and Dusk confirms in a vision that the player is the Nerevarine in Morrowind?

Azura appears once the player puts on a ring said to kill anyone else who wears it, and she returns after the final battle to reward the victory.

Which Great House of Morrowind, built on trade and friendliest to the Empire, is the easiest for outlanders to join?

House Hlaalu treats everything as business, and one of its most powerful figures in the game is of Imperial stock rather than a Dark Elf.

Which Morrowind town on the Odai River, the island's second largest after Vivec, has a name meaning Stonewood?

Balmora sits where the West Gash meets the Bitter Coast marshes and the Ascadian Isles, and the river splits it into High Town, a Commercial District and Labor Town.

In which small port, home to the Census and Excise Office, does the player first step ashore in Morrowind?

Seyda Neen is guarded by the Imperial Legion, and its lighthouse, the Grand Pharos, is renowned for guiding ships across the Inner Sea.

Which walled capital, the ancestral seat of House Indoril, is the setting of Morrowind's Tribunal expansion?

Mournhold cannot be reached on foot or by boat: the city is cut off from the main island, so the player has to teleport there.

Which order of Temple guards, drawn mostly from House Indoril, polices the holy city of Vivec in Morrowind?

The Ordinators were founded by Saint Olms the Just, patron saint of House Indoril, and the House's influence shows in the distinctive style of their armor.

Which emergency title must the player be granted by three Great Houses during Morrowind's main quest?

Hortator elections need every councilor of a House to agree, and a lone objector has been known to settle the matter by dueling the candidate to the death.

Which Emperor of Tamriel arranges the player's release from prison at the very start of Morrowind?

Uriel Septim VII suspects the prisoner may fulfill an ancient prophecy, or at least pass as a convincing impostor he can use for political gain.

Which assassins' guild is legally sanctioned in Morrowind and carries out its killings under contracts called writs?

The Morag Tong kills in the name of the Daedric Prince Mephala, and its past targets are said to include several rulers of Tamriel.

Morrowind is the third main Elder Scrolls game; which main-series title, with a far larger map, came directly before it?

Daggerfall generated its dungeons at random across large parts of two provinces, while the smaller world of its sequel was placed by hand, item by item.

In Morrowind's combat, what decides whether a weapon swing that reaches an enemy actually counts as a hit?

A hidden dice roll, weighted by each fighter's skills, decides every blow, and at launch the game gave no sign of an enemy's remaining health either. Bethesda patched in health bars a month later.

Which Dark Elf thief, a fellow captive on the prison ship, is the first character the player meets in Morrowind?

Jiub returns in later games: Oblivion names him a saint who drove a hated flying pest from the island, and Skyrim's Dawnguard add-on features his soul.

Which ancient Telvanni wizard, said to be 4,000 years old, cures the player's divine disease in Morrowind?

Divayth Fyr shares his tower with four so-called daughters, whom he later admits are female clones of himself.

Which survivor, the last known living member of a vanished race, lives beneath a wizard's tower in Morrowind?

Yagrum Bagarn was a Master Crafter who outlived his people's disappearance, then caught a wasting disease when he returned to Red Mountain. His host has tried and failed to cure him.

Which Wood Elf, usually the first townsperson met in Morrowind, asks the player about his missing magic ring?

Fargoth repays the ring's return with a good word to his friend at the local tradehouse, which earns the player much better prices there.

Which Khajiit, found on a small island in Morrowind, jokes about requested features that never made it into the game?

M'Aiq the Liar explains how to become a lich using a dragon's tongue and the flesh of a horse, ingredients that do not exist anywhere in the game.

Which Imperial noble and Great House councilor in Morrowind wrote the bawdy play The Lusty Argonian Maid?

Crassius Curio carries a copy of his own play, likes to be called Uncle Crassius, and is one of the few in his House who truly opposes corruption.

Which divine disease must the player catch and survive to fulfill one of the Nerevarine prophecies in Morrowind?

Corprus was created by the story's villain, and the prophecy is met only when the player survives an experimental cure that leaves them immune.

Which secretive Tribunal god is the player sent to kill in the Clockwork City in Morrowind's first expansion?

Sotha Sil is already dead when the player reaches him, and a fellow member of the Tribunal soon claims the killing as her own work.

Which nomadic tribes of Morrowind's wastes reject the Tribunal and hand down the prophecies of the Nerevarine?

Ashlanders believe the Tribunal betrayed the hero Nerevar at Red Mountain, and they keep the ancestor-worshipping tribal culture that the settled Houses left behind.

Which large two-legged reptile is the main domesticated herd and pack animal of Morrowind's Dark Elves?

Guar are valued for their endurance and intelligence, and they supply milk, meat, leather and transport to the ranchers who keep them.

Which insect-like creatures live in underground colonies across Morrowind that are worked as mines for their eggs?

Kwama colonies depend on a huge, bloated queen that lays every egg and is too heavy to move, so the workers attend to all her needs.

Which licensed 3D engine did Bethesda adopt for Morrowind after scrapping its own XnGine technology?

NetImmerse brought hardware transform and lighting, 32-bit textures and skeletal animation, and the engine was later renamed Gamebryo.

The third Elder Scrolls game was planned for which province, under the title Tribunal, before Morrowind was chosen?

Summerset was dropped, and an early design covering the whole Morrowind province was shelved in 1997 as too grand for the technology of the time.

What title is given to the deputies who attend council meetings for House Telvanni's wizard-lords in Morrowind?

Mouths are proteges of their wizards, with full authority to speak for them, and each is expected to step into the master's shoes when that master dies.

Which BioWare role-playing game beat Morrowind to several of 2002's RPG of the Year awards?

Neverwinter Nights took the PC role-playing prizes from GameSpot and the Interactive Achievement Awards, while Morrowind won the equivalent awards from GameSpy and IGN.

Each Great House of Morrowind has a traditional color; which one identifies the members of House Indoril?

Blue marks House Indoril so firmly that the House is also known as the Blue Party, and its members as Blue Hats.

House Dres of Morrowind grew rich on vast saltrice plantations and on supplying the other Great Houses with what?

Slaves, mostly Argonians and Khajiit, were held by the thousands in the pens of the Dres capital, Tear, and the House accepted Imperial rule only with protections for the practice.

Which gauntlet does Vivec give the player in Morrowind so that the tools Sunder and Keening can be used safely?

Wraithguard is essential because Sunder and Keening deal a fatal blow to anyone who wields them without it on.

Which Morrowind birthsign gives huge magicka reserves and spell absorption but no way to regenerate magicka naturally?

The Atronach, often called the Golem, is one of the Mage's Charges, and the game's lore describes those born under it as natural sorcerers.

House Indoril's long dominance of Morrowind ended when the god Vivec signed which treaty with the invading Empire?

The Armistice so angered House Indoril that the Grand Council's Lord High Councilor, an Indoril, refused to accept it and was assassinated, and many Indoril nobles chose suicide over submission.

Which mining colony does the player help the East Empire Company build in Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion?

Raven Rock begins as a bare patch of open snow and gains its buildings one stage at a time as the player completes the company's quests.