I noticed that the new Redoran models have much more of a manufactured look to them, most notably wood trim in places. At first I thought this strange, but then realized that it'd be ridiculous if they found giant shells everywhere they wanted to build something. Is this an intentional attempt to expand Redoran architecture or to point out that there is not an infinite and conveniently-located stash of crab shells, or is it simply incidental? I really hope that it's the former, because I think that it makes a lot of sense and makes the Redoran more believable as a culture.
Skar in Ald'ruhn is the only case ever of Redorans living in carapaces. All the other buildings are
inspired by insect and other organic forms, they are not actual shells.
From the Morrowind book "Guide to Ald'ruhn":
Quote:"Ald'ruhn town is a large settlement in the Redoran village style, built of local materials, with organic curves and undecorated exteriors inspired by the landscape and by the shells of giant native insects."
From the Morrowind dialogue topic "House Styles":
Quote:"The three Dunmer Great Houses that have settled Vvardenfell have distinctive architectures and lifestyles. Aristocratic, warlike Great House Redoran favors a spacious, irregular, organic building style. Great House Hlaalu, an aggressive mercantile culture, strongly admiring and influenced by Imperial culture, prefers simpler, more modern, more densely populated settlements, while bizarre wizard towers dominate mushroom-hut villages of the Great House Telvanni sorcerer-lords. A fourth Great House style, the Velothi or Temple style, is evident in the monumental architecture, bridges, buttresses, and grand canals of the ancient religious center of Vivec City."
From the Morrowind dialogue topic "Ald'ruhn":
Quote:"The Redoran Council [...] are in the Manor District, all inside an ancient Emperor Crab shell known as Skar.
Understood. It makes sense, I guess they just did such a good job of emulation that I always assumed that they were biological.
The next question that occurred to me though about is whether it would be appropriate to develop the tileset, your new models, and the redone TESIII models as seperate subsets for different cities such as is reportedly the case for Imperial architecture in TESIV. How many major and minor Redoran settlements are there in the Silgrad/Blacklight/RP/Velothi landscape?
yeash as Razorwing has made it clear, they DO immitate the shells...
BUT, [i]some[/i[ buildings really are if you look in TES3 concept art...
some are shells that are made fit for living, others are mud-clay made into a shell shape...
Quote:Originally posted by Vrenir
Understood. It makes sense, I guess they just did such a good job of emulation that I always assumed that they were biological.
The next question that occurred to me though about is whether it would be appropriate to develop the tileset, your new models, and the redone TESIII models as seperate subsets for different cities such as is reportedly the case for Imperial architecture in TESIV. How many major and minor Redoran settlements are there in the Silgrad/Blacklight/RP/Velothi landscape?
I suspect that is mostly happening - that each town has its own style - but if a builder from one city moves to another would he change his/her whole style, or try to introduce his old style into the new area?
There are places that have more than one style, especially if they have ancient origins - remember Almalexia, aka Mournhold built over those ancient ruins? Another example would be the legion outpost on the NW coast of Vvardenfell - there were 3 styles at least - Empire fort, Telvanni inhabited mansion and dunmer/Redoran buildings.
So it would depend on the quests and history of the area.
When it comes to things like huge model projects I think we have to be pragmatic and sometimes adjust our wishes to what's feasible.
If Caligula Superfly completes his excellent set of Redoran buildings then in my mind the Redoran situation has been taken care of. I feel we should use those for the bulk of Redoran settlements simply because they are so true to what Redoran buildings should look like.
? As for my exterior tileset I've settled on using it for a minor-House culture (
-link-). Whether that minor-House clan is made up from scratch and belong to House Redoran, or is used to mod the Ald Raathim village discussed in that ESF thread, remains to be seen. But I imagine it'll probably be the first alternative so as to give us freedom in modding it without overriding - or being bound by - lore.
Basically there used to exist a wealth of minor Houses (~clans) in Morrowind, which over time either merged into the five Great Houses or were destroyed. So the structures made with this tileset would have been built long ago, before the minor-House that built them merged with House Redoran.
? The Redoran buildings Hoss made would probably find a similar application, for another minor-House culture.
? The Redoran buildings I made... well, we'll see. One or two might find a use for farm and other rural buildings, or a unique locations.
That makes perfect sense and is very econimical. Good stuff.
Beautiful Solution - leaves all open to inspiration. And I feel that your tileset is very special...so that is best...
razorwing, are you going to update your redoran models with the newer textures like the ones caligulas using? and are ALL the redoran buildings (everyones) going to end up being bundled together, like b4?
because, if we had all of those models, but with similar textures, then i think that would more than solve our "variant problem" right there.
batman:
I'm not sure. I have an affinity for a few of the Redoran buildings I made, like the
Bird of Prey and to a lesser extent
Traditional Mansion, and I would like to see them used for
something - but not necessarily as part of the stock Redoran building collection. They could be used for a rural farm or as a unique building or something like that, but the collection Caligula is creating is so spot-on Redoran that once it's finalized I think it would be best to exclusively use it for Redoran settlements.
All buildings will eventually end up in Oblivion's Meshes and Textures folder as part of Silgrad Tower's install.
